Brockville family of 6 reunited after November house fire

Kirsti Bakker only wished for one thing after a fire at the Bakker residence near Brockville, Ont. on Nov. 7.

"I need my family together in one home. That's all that matters," Bakker told CTV News Ottawa in an emotional interview on Nov. 10.

The family of six was forced to split up after the fire, living between friends' homes and hotel rooms. 

But Kirsti's request did come true, just before Christmas, with the family now together under one roof, including their 25-year-old son with special needs.

"We got the keys on the 19th and officially moved in on the 20th," Kirsti said. "The community up until that point was amazing. Brockville is amazing, the residents are amazing."

"We heard from people that we'd never even known, reaching out asking to help," she recalled. 

Their insurance company and area realtors, all worked together to find a rental property suitable for the family.

"There's certainly a lot of moving pieces and a lot of people involved in purchasing a home, right from the lawyers to the financial institutions," said Nathan McNamee, a realtor with Royal LePage ProAlliance.

"The Bakker family's local insurance brokerage reached out to the real estate community here in Brockville and I picked that up and was looking for something that would help with their unique situation," he said. 

That included an anonymous investor, who had heard about the Bakker's situation.

"I brought the story to him and he was intrigued by helping the Bakker family and also growing his investment portfolio at the same time," McNamee said. 

"Certainly, the time of year was not in their favour," he added. "The inventories are very low going into the holiday season. This one that came up worked well for them, worked well for the investor and we were able to put them together."

"I think it's a testament to living in a small community like Brockville," said King Yee, managing partner at JB Kelly Waterway Insurance.

"To have the Bakker family in before Christmas was truly a blessing and it worked out well for everybody," he said. 

A photo of the Bakker children hangs on the wall of the family's rental home, exactly like a photo that was lost in the fire. (Nate Vandermeer/CTV News Ottawa)

Yee noted that with supply chain issues and labour challenges, renovating the Bakker's fire-damaged home could take some time. 

"There's quite extensive damage, so on a normal environment, probably 6 to 8 months, but I think they are projecting closer to a year," Yee said. 

"At the end of the day, it's making the family comfortable after that traumatic experience and try to resume life as normal," he added. 

"It's just a good story. There was a traumatic experience, a number of different groups worked together collectively and made the resolution as positive as it was," Yee said. 

While the family said they had a hectic holiday with the move, it was the best Christmas gift ever.

"Relieved," said Kirsti. 

"We can be settled in one place and just not have to worry about that while we are worrying about everything else," added her husband Mike. 

"We actually had a couple offers from places to stay at, from people that we had never met," said Kirsti. "Tall Ships Landing reached out to us and offered us two of their suites but unfortunately it would have been on two different floors."

"A number of places, a number of people reached out offering rentals and everything. This one, absolutely in terms of our family size and family needs, it was absolutely a no-brainer on it," she added. 

Kirsti Bakker looks at the charred remains of her family's home in Brockville, Ont. (Nate Vandermeer/CTV News Ottawa)

The family was displaced from Nov. 7 to Dec. 20, with community support helping to get them through. 

While the three children stayed with friends of the family, a local car company reached out with a loaner vehicle so her kids could continue to get to school and their appointments.

A family friend added a fifth bedroom in the basement in just two days, and even the sellers of the house agreed to sell quicker, to help the situation according to the family. 

"They are actually now in a hotel waiting for their house. They heard of the situation and they were like,  'Yup, we'll do that'", said Kirsti. 

The family was also able to adopt a new cat, replacing the one that was lost in the fire.

"I didn't think that everything would come together as quickly as it did, and I was surprised when it did and I'm very happy," she added. "(We're) still processing it all and there's still a long way to go but we're together again."

"We're back to annoying them on a daily basis under one roof!" laughed Mike. "Just thank you to everybody."