This past Saturday morning there was a fire at my mother and brother's place. Mom was out of town visiting her parents so it was just my brother at home when it happened. The house they live in is sectioned into three apartments and the fire started on the top floor while they live in the basement. They were the furthest removed from it, but still the entire house was compromised. Smoke and water damage on all levels. Firefighters had to cut a hole in the roof for ventillation. Apparently the house might not be accessible for months.
They've been living in that place since I left for Katimavik some 14 years ago. They'd been able to grandfather themselves into the new housing market unharmed, but who knows if they'll feel safe going back even when it does reopen.
Confirmation bias makes it easy to retrospectively find connections when there really aren't any. Still, the day before all this happened I'd accidentally pocket dialed emergency services. Then, on the day it was happening, before I'd heard from anyone, my phone tried to dial 911 again but it didn't put through the call. Weird that it happened twice, and then my family did need them.
News crews showed up shortly after emergency services. An article was published day-of and I saw another one today. I won't share them here. Even though I'm sure I've released enough information over time that someone really invested could put together where both our households are, the articles make it just a bit too obvious.
The articles correctly say that all human residents present during the event evacuated successfully. I was surprised to see that they mentioned the cats. It said that of the four in the house, two were recovered successfully while two were unaccounted for.
Correction. There were six cats in that house, each unit having two. Four of them, including my mother and brother's, were recovered successfully. I also know what happened to the two unaccounted for. Unfortunately, one escaped and ran away while the other suffocated from smoke inhalation.
They also said there's no suspected cause, but speaking to the people at the house, it's pretty well understood that a wall air conditioner in the attic exploded. I don't know why they don't want to report that. I'd just like to point out that my family was in no way responsible for this, as it happened at the very opposite point of where they live.
My mother and brother are staying with some family friends until Tuesday and then we'll be hosting them. Their cats are receiving emergency temporary shelter at the Guelph Humane Society for the time being, but they'll be coming over as well.
I'm a little worried about integrating them into our household. We also live in a basement apartment, so there's no way for them to avoid sharing territory with our cats, even if we keep them in a separate room at first. When we introduced Finn to Kieran it went seemlessly but neither of them have reacted well to cats outside our kitchen window, so it might have been a fluke. Also, Finn literally has an anxiety disorder, which I've been meaning to do a blog post on. But the Guelph cats are his actual genetic brothers, so maybe he'll be able to sense that in some way.
The one silver lining might be that it frees up Mom to look after our cats so that we can visit our grandparents.
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