ELORA – The pail of water tossed by Christina Robb from her back apartment window did little to suppress the shooting flames licking up an outside wall.
The 73-year-old dashed across her small, one-bedroom apartment to the bathroom to refill the pail before running back to the window, leaning out and trying again to douse the flames below.
Moments before, around 1am, she woke after dozing off to an audiobook.
She thought the raucous noise she was hearing came from partiers in the adjacent Airbnb units that had taken over the Metcalfe Suites in recent years. She was one of two remaining long-term tenants.
“I had no idea there was a fire until I looked out the window and saw the flames,” Robb said, adding she never heard smoke alarms going off.
After throwing five pails of water on the flames, she gave up and fled, with clothes worn over her pajamas, down the metal staircase just outside her unit.
“I heard this hollering from people; they were standing there, they were in shock, they were just watching,” Robb said.
Now outside, Robb grabbed a garden hose and sprayed the building’s walls.
“Just after that, it was the boom,” she said.
Kreso Cavlovic, sleeping beside his wife in the upper unit of his building next door, was woken by screaming. He looked out from the window to see “wicked fire” and smoke.
“Then there were big pops,” he said, “something was burning and popping, it wasn’t good.”
Cavlovic yelled across the alleyway separating his building and the suites.
He was trying to alert Trevor Wedgewood, the other long-term tenant living there.
“It was really smoky by then; I figured he was out already,” Cavlovic said.
Wedgewood declined to be interviewed for this story.
Cavlovic described the scene as “mayhem.”
He saw Robb outside and asked if she was okay.
“There’s not much you can say,” he said of the fraught moment, adding the fire could have been much worse.
Robb tried to call her son on Cavlovic’s phone but was too distraught.
“You could see she was very rattled,” Cavlovic said.
Robb returned later that night.
“I had to see if everything was all gone,” she said. “I couldn’t sleep anyway.”
According to Centre Wellington Fire Rescue, the fire was contained to a single Airbnb unit.
The other units, including Robb’s, are damaged by smoke and water, however.
Volunteer firefighters arrived on scene eight and a half minutes after the first alarm about the fire came in at about 12:56am, according to deputy fire chief Jonathan Karn.
An off-duty firefighter in the area at the time provided an initial on-scene report about the fire burning in a ground-floor unit within the L-shaped building.
An aerial ladder truck extends over the Metcalfe Suits building from Metcalfe Street in downtown Elora in the early morning hours on Sept. 13. Photo by Noah Ramage
Smoke alarms were heard by those interviewed by the fire department, and Karn said fire prevention staff found most to be working, with the exception of one that had been disabled.
Twelve people, including Airbnb renters, and long-term tenants Robb and Wedgewood, evacuated the building. No injuries have been reported.
By 5:30am, most trucks began returning to fire halls in Elora and Fergus. A fire watch crew remained, walking the building every half hour throughout the night, Karn said.
The fire department turned the building over to its owner mid-morning on Saturday, after the fire’s cause was found to be accidental.
Karn said the department is determining whether to publicly release the cause and other details after the department itself came under fire in online social media groups criticizing its response.
Robb said she was told the floor in her apartment is no longer safe because the ceiling in the unit below hers was damaged in the fire.
Her clay sculptures and decades-old plants have been left behind, but she has since recovered some bedding and clothing.
She’s now “couch surfing,” Robb said with a wry smile.
White sheets are hung in a room at her son’s home, creating a partition and some privacy.
Her son asked not to be identified for this story, to avoid being pulled into the online fray, and to let Robb speak for herself.
For a self-described independent woman, even the notion of appearing destitute or hapless is uncomfortable and humiliating.
But without renter’s insurance, and not anticipating financial help from the landlord, Robb is relying on community support and her son for temporary housing.
Robb intends to use money from an ongoing GoFundMe campaign to pay for housing until she can find an affordable long-term solution on a fixed income. She previously worked as a landscaper and gardener.
The campaign, started by Nora Crete, has generated 30 donations totalling $2,521 as of Sept. 22, toward a $7,500 fundraising goal.
“The community has been golden,” Robb said, adding Wedgewood offered her half of the cash raised through a separate GoFundMe campaign. She declined.
“I never expected anything; as a matter of fact … it struck me very emotionally,” Robb said.
“I’m incredibly grateful for all those who have helped me and reached out and donated in my direction – God bless you.”
Robb said she wants the landlord to now “rise up in the community” and help support her and Wedgewood.
She’s up against market-rate rentals after 23 years living in the Metcalfe Suites through several ownership changes.
According to Robb, she was renting the apartment for $700 per month, a near steal in today’s warped market, and she hopes to eventually return once repairs are made.
She’s working through a cotton mountain of laundry and keeping the many appointments that seem to come after a fire.
“I’m keeping myself busy,” Robb said. “It’s better to be busy now.”
Fire damage seen from an alleyway.
Noah Ramage has been forced to temporarily close his vintage clothing shop, The Showroom, located in a ground-level unit within the Metcalfe Suites building facing Metcalfe Street.
A sign taped to the unit’s door on Sept. 19 read: “Closed due to a fire in the building. Will reopen as soon as I can.”
Ramage posted to Facebook thanking volunteer firefighters for their work and for community support.
In one post, Ramage wrote he was alerted to smoke in the store by his HomePods around 1am on Sept. 13.
He remotely viewed security cameras to see cloudy, grey smoke obscuring the image.
“My damage is all smoke damage, which being a business of entirely fabrics is proving to be pretty challenging,” Ramage wrote.
“It’s an all-hands-on-deck laundry mission over here, and I am hopeful I’ll be able to save a good handful of what was damaged.”
Ramage doesn’t have a timeline for when he can reopen but told the Advertiser he hopes to be back in the store as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Ramage said he’ll be selling his vintage and home goods on weekends at the Elora Market “for the foreseeable future.”
Tawnya and Paul Restivo purchased the Metcalfe Suites building in 2016.
Tawnya praised emergency services and commended the fire department for keeping the fire contained.
Tawnya declined to comment on the plight faced by displaced tenants, saying by phone, “it’s only been one week.”
What’s next for the building is unknown.
“That future we can’t even think about right now … we have no clue,” she said. “We’re devastated.”
An Airbnb spokesperson told the Advertiser the company is in contact with the guest and host to support them following the fire.
