A family devastated by the loss of their home, most of their possessions, and their beloved dog is focusing on the positive, with a message of gratitude toward the large community of people who have surrounded them with love, caring and compassion.
When fire broke out on the evening of Dec. 15 in the Niagara Falls home of Kate Fish, principal of Crossroads School, and her husband Stephen, a teacher at a Niagara Falls school, their two daughters Evelyn, 12, and Claire, 14, were home alone with a friend. Kate and Stephen were down the street visiting neighbours.
Kate credits the calm, quick action of the girls, and a well-rehearsed escape plan for the family in the event of fire, for saving their lives.
When Evelyn called Kate that night, it was to say she was hearing noises from the basement and thought there was an intruder in the house. The three girls then headed upstairs, and Mabel, their six-year-old Bernedoodle, soon followed.
During Evelyn’s phone call with Kate, smoke detectors in the house “started screeching,” she says. The house had been recently renovated, with smoke detectors on every level and in every bedroom, and they were all going off simultaneously.
With smoke quickly filling the house behind them, Evelyn broke the screen in her bedroom window, as both she and Kate were calling 911, and the girls climbed out onto the roof.
The three girls then headed upstairs, and Mabel, their six-year-old Bernedoodle, soon followed
“She was talking to 911 as they were escaping, and she dropped her phone. She called back to apologize, and said there were three girls on the roof of a house, and the house was on fire,” recounts Kate. It wasn’t long before their street was filled with emergency vehicles — police, fire trucks and first responders lined the road.
“Steve had run to the house, and was able get the girls down off the roof — he caught them and got them to the ground, and they ran to the stop sign on the corner. That was our safe spot that was part of our escape plan.”
One of the firefighters went into the house to rescue Mabel, performed CPR, gave her oxygen, and took her to an emergency veterinary clinic, but she couldn’t be revived.
“The firefighter told me that because Mabel had been downstairs and run up to alert the girls to the fire, she had saved their lives, and she was wrapped in a Canadian flag before she was cremated. She was a hero.”
The girls are also heroes, she says.
“Our kids should be the spokespeople for how to escape from a burning building. They were calm, cool and collected. They called 911, got out of the house, and went to our safe spot. It was terrifying. It was fast — four minutes — and they escaped from the last room that filled with smoke.”
“Stephen and I have always agreed, our job is to keep them alive until they can keep themselves alive,” adds Kate. “We didn’t expect the test to come so soon, but we all passed, and now there is a sense of relief that is indescribable.”
She has good cause to be proud of what the girls accomplished that night, “but the fact that they were so calm and so confident that their friend trusted them with her life is what makes me most proud.”
The family has been staying in Niagara-on-the-Lake, first with Kate’s parents, Kathy and Tim Taylor, and then in an airbnb, as other family members arrived for Christmas.
Last Wednesday, they were allowed back into the house to see what was salvageable, which turned out to be very little.
“All the gifts we had purchased, with the exception of electric tooth brushes, were destroyed,” she says.
However some friends soon took over the job of shopping to replace and wrap the gifts that were lost.
“I know it was just stuff, all things that were replaceable,” Kate says, “but knowing my kids would have gifts to open Christmas morning, that they would have the traditional Christmas they were accustomed to, meant a lot. It relieved a lot of stress.”
She says the four of them were having dinner one night a few days after the fire, talking about the one thing each would have grabbed if they’d had a chance. Kate and the two girls each said they would take their childhood stuffie — Kate still has hers.
Stephen said there were a few reminders of his mother he would want — she passed away when he was in his early 20s.
Amazingly, the stuffies all survived, and just needed a good cleaning, and most of what Stephen had of his mother’s was packed away in containers and also escaped damage.
“All the gifts we had purchased, with the exception of electric tooth brushes, were destroyed"
“We have all we really need, and we’re okay. If we can get through this we can get through anything. There are people everywhere who are going through much worse loss,” says Kate. “We’re going to be okay.”
There are lots of tears, she says, “but they come and go, and there is also lots of laughter, lots of joy and lots of sharing memories.”
Kate credits her parents for having passed on the traits that allow her to deal with the harrowing experience they have all been through, and still have a positive attitude.
“I am who I am because of my parents, the lessons they taught me and that I taught my kids,” she says. “I see their strength in my kids.”
They expect it will be about 18 months before their home, the house where Stephen grew up, and which was left to him when his mother passed away, is fully renovated. But even that isn’t worrying her at the moment — they have had several generous offers of places to live.
The cause of the fire has been difficult to determine, she says — it seems to have been a “fluke accident,” with most of the obvious causes eliminated. “It wasn’t human error,” such as a candle left burning or anything of that nature, she adds.
In the meantime, “the police, the firefighters, the insurance company, restoration company — they’ve all been amazing. I don’t know if it’s the time of year or if everybody is always so open-hearted. I hope that everybody going through something like this is shown the same love and generosity we’ve been shown.”
“When you consider you’re having a rough day, someone else is having a worse day,” she continues. “I have my husband and kids, and we’re surrounded by love and compassion. There are people who have experienced much greater loss than we have. We are just grateful for everything the community has done for us.”
When Kate speaks of community, it covers a wide net. In addition to family and friends, she and Stephen both have their school communities — their families for seven or eight hours every day — the schools the girls attend, their friends, and as she’s discovering, the families of those friends, who have reached out to offer help. “Even the family of our dog groomer,” she adds.
Then there are the communities of the Niagara Falls Curling Club, where Stephen and Claire are on its board, and from Bethlehem Housing and Big Brothers Big Sisters, with Kate on the board of both of them.
“The Niagara community has been amazing. They’ve offered us support, necessities, and extravagances. They’ve offered everything. There are no words to describe...” she says, struggling to speak through her tears.
“It’s just so heart-warming. It’s overwhelming how much generosity, kindness, love and support people have shown us.”
In recent days she’s spoken often about the importance of an escape plan, and been surprised to hear how many people don’t have one.
“Maybe this happened to us to save one other life. Maybe somebody has gone out and bought a smoke detector, or maybe other families will have a conversation about their fire safety and escape plan.
She encourages others to have those conversations with their families. If Claire and Evelyn hadn’t known their escape plan, “if they hadn’t reacted the way they did in their calm, strong, brilliant way, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” she says.
“Christmas or not, have that conversation. There is no better gift to give your family. It could save their lives.”
There is a GoFundMe set up for the Fish family. Kate says she struggled with it, but realized “every single person we speak to asks how to help. They ask what they can do. This is a way they can demonstrate their love and caring,” she says.
In addition, when anyone sees the page and shares it, they share the message to go out and buy a smoke detector, and to talk about fire safety with their family.
“That’s the greatest component, the message of safety and its infiltration into all of our communities.”
The GoFundMe page can be found at gofundme.com/f/fish-family-house-fire
