Overnight house fire leaves East Hamilton family homeless

(Update)

After seven years of relatively good fortune here in Canada, an immigrant family of five is starting over tonight. A fire destroyed the family home of ‘Win Dow’ in Hamilton overnight — but that isn’t the only misfortune the family has endured.

Win Dow has a wife, and three young children, two of which are disabled. Eight-year old Leah was born with only one leg while her 15-year old sister Wendy is mentally challenged. And even before they came to Canada, Win’s family had endured, some very difficult circumstances.

Temporarily housed in a downtown Hamilton hotel — Win Dow, and his family are still upbeat, and grateful: “Thank you God.”

They’ve been through tougher times. Members of the Karan ethnic community, they were driven out of their native land of Myanmar and into a refugee camp, nearly a decade ago.

From there, Jeanette Groenwegen and her husband Harry, sponsored the family — and agreed to act as their hosts, here in Canada.

Until last night, the Dow’s had a home here on Martha Street in Hamilton. This morning, it’s all gone.

Jeanette Groenwegen: “So, no insurance. We talked about it and she called me last week with some paperwork for insurance — she needed help for translating.”

It’s especially hard for 14-year old Secret, and eight-year old Leah — who are going back to school next week. They have no clothes, no books, no supplies. But that doesn’t discourage Leah — she’s looking forward to it: “It’s fun, we make new friends, it’s helpful.”

The house on Martha Street sustained more than 150-thousand dollars in damage, and fire officials believe that careless smoking may have been the cause. Win and his family can stay at this hotel for a few days, thanks to help from the Red Cross — but Jeanette is hoping to work on a long term solution: “Well, we’re going to try to set up a trust fund, only because we don’t know what they’ll need or when they’ll need it, or where they’re goin’ .”

And at the moment Win, and his family, don’t know either.

Here is the information on the trust fund for the Dow family.  Donations can be made at any Royal Bank to the account number 515-220-2 and transit number 02-042.