Family loses house to fire, but maybe gains a home

Jeff Green | Nov 25, 2020

It’s everybody’s nightmare.

Derek Brady got up early on Sunday morning, November 15th, at 5am.

He decided to put wood on the fire since it had been a cool night. Back in his bedroom, he could smell smoke, and he thought it came from the wood fire. The smell did not go away so he went back to look.

It turned out that the smell had nothing to do with the wood fire. There was an electrical fire in the basement, and smoke was filling up the room where his young daughters were sleeping.

With his wife Elise, Derek got his daughters and Elise’s parents, who were visiting, up and out of the house, as it became engulfed in the flames of an electrical fire.

“It seemed like it took forever for the fire crews to arrive, but it was actually only a few minutes,” Derek recalled, a few days later.

Fire crews from the nearby Central Frontenac District 3 Firehall arrived first, followed by backup from Parham, Mountain Grove, and Verona. They were able to put the fire out, while the house was still standing, but the damage is too great and it is a total write off.

Derek and Elise bought the house, which is on Sharbot Lake off of the Brewer Road, 3 years ago. They were living in Newcastle, where Derek works for Kijiji.

“We were looking for a cottage, and were not interested in the Muskoka region, so we looked in the Kawarthas and further east. When we saw the view of Sharbot Lake from this place, we were sold.”

Ever since buying on Sharbot Lake, the Brady’s have been spending half their time in Sharbot Lake. When COVID hit, they became Toronto refugees and moved to Sharbot Lake on a full-time basis because Derek was already working from home. When the summer ended and September came, they decided to enroll their eldest daughter at Granite Ridge, their younger daughter attends the daycare at the Child Centre, and they officially became locals.

“We did not meet that many people in the summer because we were living on the water, like cottagers, but when school started Elise got involved in parent council and we began meeting people and becoming part of the community,” said Derek.

As soon as the fire was put out, those local connections became solidified.

“Elise was really upset, of course, not only about what could have happened but didn’t, but also about losing everything. She had even lost her wedding ring, which was in her jewellery box in our bedroom. When the firefighters heard this, one of them said he had to check something on the top floor anyway. So he went up a ladder and did what he had to do, and also brought the jewellery box down with him, and the wedding ring was intact. It meant so much to her to get that one thing back. It chokes me up just thinking about it,” Derek said.

Within a half an hour, Derek had contacted his next-door neighbours to let them know their cottage was ok, and they had insisted that the Bradys stay in the cottage, for the winter, since they are not planning to use it.

When we went to Sharbot Lake, people began giving us stuff, from the pharmacy, the hardware store, and everywhere. People brought us clothes and tried to give us money, even though we are fully insured and the insurance company has also come through for us. It’s been amazing. Nothing like this would ever happen in the City,” he said. “from the fire crews to our friends on the council to the stores, we really feel like we have found a community.”

The Bradys are hoping to rebuild in the spring.