Joseph Arbour was displaced from his home after a fire on Feb. 29. He is hoping to bring a new RV onto the property with the help of an online fundraiser. Dale Boyd/Osoyoos Times

Updated March 10 at 9:24 a.m. 

Dale Boyd

Osoyoos Times

A longtime Osoyoos resident is turning to the community for help after a fire completely destroyed his home of 18 years.

Joseph Arbour was taking his dog Shilo out for a routine trip to Cottonwood Park on Feb. 29 when he returned to find a fire had started around the shed at his 100 Avenue home.

“If I had a bucket of water, I could have put it out. They had been burning across the road. All the smoke was coming my way, everything was coming my way,” Arbour said. “With the wind … that was it. I didn’t hardly have a chance to get — all I got out was my Bible, was the first thing I grabbed. Then I grabbed my (laptop) and a few art supplies. I do drawings and sell cards. I wanted to get more of my art and couldn’t because the place was tumbling down and in my condition … I had fallen a couple of times, so I just said ‘no, I’m out of here.'”

A former security guard in town, Arbour used the RV when he would stay for overnight security jobs and later converted it into a home with additional structures which now lay burnt and in pieces on the property. Emergency social services and the community stepped in to help put a roof over Arbour’s head.

Arbour and Shilo are now staying with Ruth Knippelberg and with the assistance of the Grace Lutheran Church set up an online fundraiser to help purchase a new travel trailer to live in, and to help remove the remains of his former home from the land. Some of the funds raised will help get the land prepared to welcome a new motorhome and reconnect utilities.

• Read more: Structure fire in Osoyoos leaves one person displaced

As of Monday morning the fundraiser had raised $1,160 of its $15,000 goal.

“Joseph lost everything he had. No insurance. He’s got a dog and that’s why he wants to get on that site. Some people might say go to the Villas or something like that,” said Pastor Darren Siegle, who is assisting Arbour with the online fundraiser and helping him get back on his feet.

Arbour said the fire started due to the wind blowing embers from nearby burn piles on to his home, but both he and Siegle noted that the fire department is unable to prove the allegations. Arbour said the property owner across the street is offering to bring equipment and assist with clean up the site “which is a huge relief for Joseph,” Siegle later said in an email.

Osoyoos Fire Department Chief Dave McMahon said following his investigation he is not able to conclusively say that a nearby burn pile started the fire.

“I have eliminated all possible ignition sources from the site, and have taken into consideration Joseph’s statements being on scene when I got there. It’s going to have to go down undetermined. However, I can’t eliminate the burn pile either,” McMahon said. “The burn pile could have started it, for sure, it’s obviously within the realms of possibility. But I can’t conclusively say that’s what started it. I can’t eliminate it, but I can’t conclusively say that’s what it was.”

McMahon said he “genuinely feels” for Arbour, having lost everything in the fire.

“It’s a sad day for him,” McMahon said. “I went through the place with a fine-toothed comb. The fire would have started where he said it started, for sure. It was a wind-driven fire. The wind caused a huge amount of damage as it drove that fire through the structure.”

While there were burn piles opposite Arbour’s home, McMahon said there was not enough evidence to link them to causing the fire.

“There is not enough evidence there to say that that’s conclusively what started the fire,” McMahon said.

 

Osoyoos Fire Department responded to a structure fire on 100 Avenue on Feb. 29  afternoon. Photo: OFD