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'THIS WAS OUR DREAM,' WOMAN LAMENTS AFTER FIRE DESTROYS HOME
Kate Hammer
Globe and Mail
September 24, 2008
Canada
As firefighters sifted through the charred remains of 146 Bedford Rd.,
two figures stood in the three-storey home's backyard. Neither spoke
as they stared at the spoils of a three-alarm fire that brought 17
fire trucks and 90 firefighters to the East Annex yesterday afternoon.
The smaller of the two figures was Narine Termkrtchyan, an Armenian
florist who had bought the house in December.
She tugged at the red and green flowers embroidered above the button
holes of her cardigan as she stared through an ivy-covered archway at
blackened and soggy wood beams and teetering portions of brick walls.
"For 10 years, I work so hard, I never take vacation, all for this
house, this was our dream," she said, the only other sound the dripping
of fire-hose water into puddles.
The larger figure stood a few feet away on a pile of discarded
shingles, his soot-stained hands draped over the far end of the same
ivy-covered archway.
He did not give his name, but said he was a construction worker who
had been helping to install plumbing when sparks from a torch used
on copper piping ignited the second floor.
"We tried to pat it down with towels, but it just went up like,
whoosh!" he said.
The construction workers fled the home, and no one was seriously
injured.
The home at 146 Bedford Rd. was built in 1915 and falls within the
East Annex Heritage Conservation District. It was split into units
and housed several businesses, including a men's costume store and
a catering company. It sold in December for $1,067,500.
Ms. Termkrtchyan said that she and her family had remortgaged their
previous home and used their life savings to convert the individual
units into a four-bedroom single-family home, and that she had picked
out the fixtures for the kitchen only that morning. She said she was
unsure how much of the partly finished home would be covered by her
insurance. "We rented an apartment down the road so we could be near
and we would come over at the end of every day to see what was new,
how it was coming along," she said. "Now it's all gone."
Kate Hammer
Globe and Mail
September 24, 2008
Canada
As firefighters sifted through the charred remains of 146 Bedford Rd.,
two figures stood in the three-storey home's backyard. Neither spoke
as they stared at the spoils of a three-alarm fire that brought 17
fire trucks and 90 firefighters to the East Annex yesterday afternoon.
The smaller of the two figures was Narine Termkrtchyan, an Armenian
florist who had bought the house in December.
She tugged at the red and green flowers embroidered above the button
holes of her cardigan as she stared through an ivy-covered archway at
blackened and soggy wood beams and teetering portions of brick walls.
"For 10 years, I work so hard, I never take vacation, all for this
house, this was our dream," she said, the only other sound the dripping
of fire-hose water into puddles.
The larger figure stood a few feet away on a pile of discarded
shingles, his soot-stained hands draped over the far end of the same
ivy-covered archway.
He did not give his name, but said he was a construction worker who
had been helping to install plumbing when sparks from a torch used
on copper piping ignited the second floor.
"We tried to pat it down with towels, but it just went up like,
whoosh!" he said.
The construction workers fled the home, and no one was seriously
injured.
The home at 146 Bedford Rd. was built in 1915 and falls within the
East Annex Heritage Conservation District. It was split into units
and housed several businesses, including a men's costume store and
a catering company. It sold in December for $1,067,500.
Ms. Termkrtchyan said that she and her family had remortgaged their
previous home and used their life savings to convert the individual
units into a four-bedroom single-family home, and that she had picked
out the fixtures for the kitchen only that morning. She said she was
unsure how much of the partly finished home would be covered by her
insurance. "We rented an apartment down the road so we could be near
and we would come over at the end of every day to see what was new,
how it was coming along," she said. "Now it's all gone."