Five people have been ousted from their downtown apartments due to the fire that destroyed Sporting Life last week.
Though Sporting Life was the only tenant in the building destroyed by the fire, next door, and sharing a wall with the sports store there is a building with three apartments and a retail space, all of which has been evacuated since the fire on Monday night (Jan. 27).
Amanda Gordon rented one of the upper floor apartments at the front of the building with her roommate Lisa Pall, a home she has occupied for two years.
She was at work when the fire broke out, but received a text from one of the tenants in the upper back unit saying Sporting Life was on fire.
She left work so she could collect her things and was shocked at the scale of the fire.
“It was really smokey everywhere,” she said.
She was allowed into her unit around 6 p.m. to grab some of her things, important documents and some items for her roommate, who was away.
“It was already really smokey in there,” she said.
Smoke was coming through the wall she shared with Sporting Life, through a crack in the drywall, through the electrical outlets.
“I’m not particularly good in a crisis,” she said. “I didn’t have a fire plan. It was surreal.”
She said she could feel pain in her lungs after she left her apartment the first time.
A firefighter took her back into her apartment around 10 p.m. so she could pack a bag with her toothbrush and some clothes.
She watched the fire from the street.
“I thought, there’s no way my house doesn’t catch fire,” she said.
The Sporting Life building burned for about 14 hours overnight, but the fire did not spread to the building next door.
There was, however, extensive smoke damage. An air test in Gordon’s apartment revealed conditions too toxic to live in.
A second Collingwood business, Lux Vape, was also shut down by the fire.
The vape store is next to Sporting Life - they share a wall - and underneath Gordon’s apartment. That location has been closed since the night of the fire.
An announcement on the Lux Vape Facebook page indicates the store has opened again at a temporary location across the street at 223 Hurontario Street.
Gordon has recovered most of her clothes and small items, and has been washing them to get the smoke and chemical smell out of them. Larger items like furniture will remain in storage while the building is gutted. Each item will be tested for toxicity later.
“We’ll be out for at least two months,” said Gordon.
She’s staying with friends for now. She said she has stuff in several places, and has to eat out for most of her meals.
“The community has been so gracious, but you still feel like a burden on other people,” she said.
One of the tenants was able to move into his parents’ home while the building undergoes repairs.
The other four - Gordon, Pall, Cait Ainger, and Lee Girdwood - are trying to find a temporary rental for February and March.
Gordon said they’ve looked at Air BnBs, but a month in one of those is out of their price range.
None of the tenants had renters insurance, a fact which nags Gordon with pangs of regret.
She’s lived on her own since she was 18, but she did a lot of travelling and hadn’t settled into one place long enough to consider insurance. She will now.
She said her clothes have mostly been recovered, and her furniture may still be salvageable. Her most pressing need is a home for the next couple of months.
