A house fire is a devastating event.
The Friends of Fire Folks is a small organization that helps those affected by fire in Prince George and area.
Lana Tomlinson was inspired to start the Facebook page when her friend, Norma Peck, lost almost everything in an apartment fire in April 2014.
"I could see the smoke from my work when her apartment building caught fire and I couldn't even imagine the devastation," Tomlinson said.
When she went to the site on Central Street East near 10th Avenue, Tomlinson was all ears trying to find out what kind of services were provided to the victims.
"I thought there could be more done to help," she added. "So I went on my Facebook page putting out the call to help Norma."
In response, Tomlinson received enough donations to outfit a full house for Peck.
"She got a couch, love seat, dressers, everything she needed and she was set back up again," Tomlinson said.
That's when a small group of friends, including Tomlinson, decided to take action and formed Friends of Fire Folks to support victims of fires that seemed to sweep through the city in 2014, Tomlinson said.
The community soon rallied around the group's efforts and they had three donated storage units filled with household items.
Tomlinson said she found it very sad that some people didn't feel they should access the service because of a false sense of guilt. One family who was responsible for one of the fires didn't feel worthy of the charitable donations, Tomlinson said.
"It was very, very hard to convince them to get help from us," Tomlinson said.
"The stress, the guilt, the last thing they wanted to do was to take from other people. I explained to them when they finally did come to get things to help them get started, they weren't taking anything away from anyone because once they started to gather the things they needed themselves they could donate those original items back to us so someone else could use them or donate them back out to the community. That's all we asked. Just give it back to those who need it when you're done with it. So then it goes full circle and then you're not really taking anything, you're giving back as well."
The need slowed as there were less tragedies in the community so that reflected in the Friends of Fire Folks involvement.
"We've been less busy because there haven't been multiple fires where multiple families were being affected," she explained. "There are fires of single family dwellings where they're still losing everything so we still look to the community to get the help."
Storage is now an issue because Tomlinson has no extra space in her home so it does take a bit of coordination between donor and recipient.
"To take that burden off somebody's shoulders is a wonderful feeling knowing that they can sleep at night," Tomlinson said.
She's not looking for donations at the moment but asks people who are interested in donating in the future to like the Friends of Fire Folks Facebook page so that when a notice is posted looking for household items it will appear in their Facebook feed.
"Please join the page and watch for when people need help because we're definitely always here to help," Tomlinson said.
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