So Long, Home on the Grange

In my previous post I said that I wouldn't share articles written on the fire because I didn't want to make it too obvious where they lived. However, since then we've received an update that the house will not be recoverable. Therefor, protecting the address is no longer relevant

Here are some articles

https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-news/nine-people-displaced-by-weekend-fire-damage-estimated-at-750k-9316352

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/nine-people-displaced-by-guelph-fire-1.6988652

https://www.guelphtoday.com/police/fire-crews-respond-to-house-fire-on-grange-street-9308928

For some reason, I get really frustrated when official media sources get facts wrong, even if they're unimportant details. In my last post, I mentioned that they had said there were four cats in the building, two were recovered and two were of unknown status. There were six cats in the building, four got out safely, one died from smoke inhalation and the other ran away. Unfortunately, I have an update on that. The cat that got away's body has now been found, and she is confirmed to have passed away.

They also said the cause of the fire was unknown while it is pretty accepted by the people in the house that it was an air conditioner that exploded on the top floor.

In articles that were published after my post, I believe one of them mentioned that the fire was on Grange Road. It was actually Grange Street. That might sound pedantic but Guelph actually has a Grange Road and that isn't where they lived.

They also mention that everyone living in the huse was over 40. My 32 year old brother must have been upset to hear how the event has aged him.

My brother put out a few links for people to contribute financially to replacing some of the stuff. I tried sending them over my Facebook, but the post wouldn't go through. After some experimentation I realized it was because I was linking these articles.

A few years back, the federal government made it illegal to share Canadian news sources over some major websites, like Facebook and Google. The idea was that these companies had gotten so good at making summaries on their sites, that when links were put out, people would read the summaries but not click on the articles. Since revenue is based on clicks, these sites were effectively using the work of Canadian writers to generate activity on their site without bringing any to them.

Whether this move constituted support for Canadian business or if it was just censorship is up for debate. But while the change in policy created a lot of buzz, it never felt like it effected me. I would Google the news and get Canadian sources. I would go on Youtube and see video articles.

This was the first time it impacted me. I'd forgotten it had even happened.

A resident of the house before they lived there was a musician and he dedicated a song to the house that can still be found online. Here is a link to it

https://richardlaviolette.bandcamp.com/track/127-grange

The actual song can be played through that link. I'll transcribe the lyrics here though.

At 127 Grange

A home away from home

There's just enough guitars

To make out with the strings

There's horse shit in a bag

It's level with the trees

The humble canopies

Never see how great they look

Drinking cans of beer

With all the good folks out there

Unfortunately next door

The dogs will only sing alone

Not very true to my experience at the location. The trees may have been shorter back then, making it less difficult for a bag of horse shit to be level with them, but I don't remember any horse shit at all.  And I never made out with any guitar strings. There were definitely people drinking cans of beer, to be fair.

My family moved when I was in Katimavik. In my last rotation, I was on a reserve called Chisasibi in Cree Nation, North Quebec. There was an elder who did everything with us named Louisa. We stayed on her sister Clara's property when we practiced traditional Indigenous living for a week.

When I was coming home, there was a street named Clara that intersected with Grange. I thought that was a funny coincidence. I kept walking and the next intersecting street was named Louisa, which spooked me a little. There were no more intersecting streets between Louisa and our home. I have no idea what the significance of that was, but it felt like a message from the universe.

When I was trying to remember how to find the place, I told myself. "Rose turns into Grove, and a rose is on a grove, and Grove turns into Grange, which sounds like range, and a grove is on a range". I told this to Mom, and she said "Stop it Dr. Seuss!"

We've been told we need to get all their stuff out before end of day Sunday. There's some questions regarding the legality of that request, but we want the stuff out by that time anyway. We've already made a couple trips and have recovered a good amount already. They rented a nearby storage unit.

Other than a few boarded windows, the house looks relatively undamaged. The wiring and plumbing must be a mess though. It was weird going in, because it seemed so unchanged. There was a dank and musty smell, not even smokey, and there's no electricity or plumbing. Oherwise it seemed normal.

Well, part of the roof in Mom's room did cave in.

Because they were in the basement, they got the bulk of the water damage. The floors were uneven, so most of it pooled into Mom's room, which was at the lowest elevation. The living room was left relatively untouched, which is where most of their more expensive items were.