When 92-year-old Peter Phelan returned to his former home for the first time since a torrent of flame reduced most of Silverlynn Apartments to rubble, a fire inspector took a moment to comfort him.
“She held his hands and she was so unbelievably, genuinely concerned for him,” said Phelan’s daughter, Kerry Romaniuk. “It made us all almost cry.”
In the aftermath of the May 10 blaze that engulfed the North Vancouver seniors residence, people in the surrounding community have come together to support the 41 tenants who had been living in the now-uninhabitable building.
That includes the impressive work of local first responders, who helped save all the residents from serious physical harm. It also involves the follow-up care provided by North Shore Emergency Management, and emergency support services staff.
Additionally, three community organizations – Lynn Valley Lions, Lynn Valley Community Association, and District of North Vancouver Fire Fighters Charitable Society – have launched fundraising campaigns for the evacuees with a combined total of $36,000, and growing.
Also supporting the displaced seniors are the scores of compassionate neighbours who are pitching in cash or showing empathy in other ways.
Lynn Valley Lions president Eric Miura said the community is here for the Silverlynn evacuees.
“Our motto is to serve and we do that alongside our community members, businesses and organizations,” he said. Through their campaign, the Lions are matching donations up to $20,000.
“I can’t stress how great our community is. Every time we do a fundraiser like this we get a really positive response from people of all walks,” he said.
DNVFF Charitable Society has also been accepting donations, and has an upcoming, sold-out Barn Burner concert at the Maplewood Fire Rescue Centre on June 14 with some proceeds going to the evacuees.
'I’ve lost everything,' evacuee says
Romaniuk said all the support has been incredible, especially in such a devastating time for the displaced tenants.
“It’s really amazing,” she said.
Her father has been lucky to have help from their immediate family. Her brother has given Phalen a permanent home in his basement in Coquitlam, which will be renovated to better accommodate Phalen's needs.
Meanwhile, Romaniuk has been drawing as much attention to the fundraisers that she can, going on radio shows, doing other media interviews, and posting on social media.
“I just encourage everyone to donate,” she said. “And it’s not for my dad at all. My dad is totally taken care of. It’s for everybody else.”
While Phelan has had his immediate needs taken care of, the fire has taken away things important to his emotional health and sense of independence.
“I’ve lost everything,” he said. “I was there for 22 years, and I have many, many family pictures and books, quite a library. So I’ve lost it all. I haven’t been able to get one thing from the apartment.
“My family has had to supply me with clothes,” he added.
As for the support he’s received from his sons and daughters, that’s been “terrible” too, he said, half joking.
“I’m a very independent individual. They have families and lives of their own,” he said. “But it’s absolutely amazing that I was offered the opportunity to be with them, like my daughter right now, and I’ll be permanently with my son and his wife.”
Mental health needs for displaced tenants rising
Among the host of emergency support services being given to the evacuees right now, there’s been an unfortunate rise in mental health needs, said Emily Dicken, director for North Shore Emergency Management.
“I think people are really struggling from both the events of the fire, but also recognizing that they won’t be going back to Silverlynn as their home,” she said. “Right now we’re moving forward with the assumption that everybody will be moving to new homes.”
A big part of the grief stems from the loss of the tight-knit community at the apartment complex, Dicken said.
“One of the things that we’ve really noticed is that there was a really beautiful community of support and connection amongst the residents that lived in Silverlynn,” she said.
Dicken said that emergency supports are in place for the 41 evacuees until June 1, which could be extended if there are still unaddressed needs by that deadline.
A core focus for NSEM now is working with BC Housing to move them from hotels into permanent homes.
“We’re still in the process of doing what we call needs assessments, understanding the full spectrum of everybody’s needs, from mobility and accessibility needs to different community supports that folks require on a day-to-day basis, really trying to understand if potentially people could move off the North Shore,” Dicken said.
BC Housing has indicated that there’s immediate availability within its housing stock, but not all of that is on the North Shore, she said. More will be known about where the displaced tenants will be headed next week, Dicken added.
Fire investigation underway
District of North Vancouver Fire Chief Mike Danks said it’s really important to acknowledge the work done by NSEM and emergency social services to aid the displaced tenants.
He said his staff are in the early stages of investigating the Silverlynn fire.
“We’re going to be working with the insurance company to methodically work through the process of trying to determine what the suite of origin is and what the cause was,” Danks said. “But we do anticipate that’s going to take quite some time.”
Firefighters worked with insurance and restoration companies earlier this week to help recover some items from the damaged structure.
“For the residents that still had suites that were safe to enter, that was a small win for them,” he said. “But I think we have to keep in mind that there were residents where their units were completely destroyed, so they weren’t able to recover any of their items whatsoever.”
The possessions lost range from hearing aids, dentures, medications, sleep apnea equipment and walkers, to irreplaceable personal effects, Danks said.
“It’s been a very devastating experience for the community, and we’re going to really try to do our best to determine what that cause was, so we can hopefully prevent it from happening in the future,” he said.
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