Help an Orleans family recover from tragic fire

https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/several-people-displaced-by-2-alarm-blaze-in-orleans-1.6397188

Hi my name is Mahmoud and I am fundraising for recover from tragic fire.

The fire on Friday, May 12, 2023, left our family without a home and our belongings.

Friday, May 12, 2023, was a beautiful day in the Orleans,ON neighborhood, , In the evening, I took my daughter Joud who is six years old to the park to play with her friends. We came back home close to sunset time, soon after we had the dinner with my wife and did some activities with Joud then took her to bed. While I was sitting with my wife, we heard my next-door neighbour’s teenager and his friend making some noise in the backside of the home. It appears as if they had fun while smoking cigarettes. I closed the balcony door so we would not hear them. These neighbors just moved in on May 01, 2023. They had a big pile of cardboard and moving boxes placed next to their property in the back, also an electric scooter.

It was after 11:30 pm when my wife and I were preparing for bed we noticed the bright red light outside, and when my wife checked and opened our bedroom curtains, she was shocked to see big flames near our bedroom window, she screamed Fire! Fire! She was shivering with fear. It was getting bigger and bigger. Quickly, I grabbed my wife and daughter (who was sleeping at that time) and ran outside to escape. Indeed, it was a narrow escape as most of our house was in flames at that time. You can imagine that scary situation when we were standing outside in night clothes and watching our home and all our personal belongings under heavy flames. The police blocked the streets and the fire department evacuated families from their homes and made sure everybody was safe. We stayed outside until 4:30 am to answer the police and fire department questions as they interviewed all of the affected families. After the initial investigation, it appeared that the fire started from our neighbor’s unit, caught all the cardboard boxes, and then the scooter exploded. This fire spread to 4 units so quickly because of the wind that night. This tragedy has now left us without a home, no furniture, no clothing, no books, and no toys for my daughter, and most importantly the memories of where my daughter was born. We are appreciative of our friends who has opened up his home to us which is where we are staying at this moment.

We are lucky that we escaped from this fire and all three of us did not get injured or burned. However, all of our personal belongings have turned to ashes in that fire.

I have lived in this house for 8 years, and we love the neigherhood very much

We are humbly appealing to our community for help. Again, we are indeed blessed and grateful to have our family and friends and simply want to get back on our feet and need a little help to do that. During this very difficult time for us. Thank you for your donation, no matter how small as each dollar will be most helpful.

Forever in gratitude,

The Shawiesh Family