‘I could feel my feet melting:’ P.E.I. man injured in September apartment blaze awaits leg amputation
SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — Charisa Lykow says it is laborious to not really feel responsible.
Her husband, Nathaniel, suffered second and third-degree burns to nearly 1 / 4 of his physique; his proper leg should be amputated within the new yr because of a September fireplace that destroyed their Summerside condominium.
The blaze additionally claimed the lives of two of the couple’s three pets
“Folks can say that it wasn’t my fault, and it was simply an accident,” says Charisa. “However I imply, our pets died, and it was due to one thing that I technically was doing.
“The guilt that I felt, and nonetheless really feel, is immense.”
On Sept. 18, Charisa was heating oil on the stovetop for doughnuts. Earlier than leaving the kitchen, she checked the temperature, assured it was low sufficient to go away it unattended for lower than a minute.
“Once I got here again, it was smoking after which it simply ignited,” remembers Charisa.
She yelled “fireplace” to alert Nathaniel. He tried to get the pot outdoors, via the backdoor within the kitchen.
By that point, although, the flames had unfold to the microwave stand above the range.
“All I might see was smoke and fireplace,” says Nathaniel. “It was simply completely engulfed in like 30 seconds.”
Unable to see via smoke and haze, he tripped over a chair, spilling sizzling oil on himself and the ground; his leg caught fireplace.
“I used to be standing in it,” he says. “I used to be type of panicking since I might really feel my ft melting.”
After a second, Charisa got here again into the home, shouting for him, attempting to tug him out.
“As soon as he made it out the door, at that time, the entire kitchen had already been engulfed,” she explains to SaltWire Community in an interview a month after the hearth. “We made it out barely with sufficient time.”
Rapidly, the hearth unfold to the remainder of the primary storey and crawled into the upstairs hallway. Smoke broken the remainder of the rooms, and the basement suffered water injury.
For the couple, it was “a blessing” that their son was out of the condominium, spending the day together with his great-grandmother.
“The firefighters commented, saying that simply seeing the state of the home and how briskly all of it occurred, there would have been a great likelihood that had he been in the home, he wouldn’t have made it out,” says Charisa.
Street to restoration
Following the hearth, each had been taken to the hospital – Charisa being handled for smoke inhalation, Nathaniel for second and third-degree burns throughout his legs and arms.
The day after the hearth, Nathaniel was airlifted to the Queen Elizabeth Well being Sciences in Halifax. Waking up within the ICU, he says, was a traumatic expertise.
“I awoke with the tube in my throat nonetheless,” he says. “All I might actually do was write with my mangled proper hand.”
Every single day since was “very worrying.” His physiotherapy entails tons of ache and work. His family and friends, even strangers on-line, cheering him on served as a motivator.
Forward of his amputation, scheduled just a few months from now, Nathaniel is doing all he can to bodily and mentally put together.
“It’s one factor to speak about it and talk about with docs and have or not it’s a possible choice,” he says. “However it’s actually … gut-wrenching to listen to that it’s truly going to occur.”
Group help
Ever because the fireplace, the couple has been in Halifax – Nathaniel on the hospital, Charisa by his aspect.
Charisa did have someday to return to P.E.I. to scrub up and salvage what she might: a tv and a few toolboxes had been all she might recuperate.
Regardless of the lack of gadgets, Charisa says that they acquired an “huge” quantity of clothes and furnishings donations from pals, household and neighbours.
A day after the hearth, two GoFundMe pages had been established to help the family recover financially, elevating greater than $12,000 between them.
The Summerside department of the Royal Canadian Legion even lent a hand, organizing a raffle to lift cash.
“The financial donations had been unbelievable for us,” says Charisa. “We might by no means have anticipated to have made such an impression on our group for them to need to assist us so considerably.”
With the assistance of family and friends, the couple was additionally capable of finding a brand new place to reside close to Summerside.
Cash shouldn’t be the one approach the group rallied, Charisa says they’ve been overwhelmed with an abundance of emotional help, as nicely.
The day Charisa stopped by the home to scrub, quite a lot of pals and neighbours got here by to verify she wouldn’t should go in alone.
Nathaniel has lived in P.E.I. all his life and has seen how the province steps up once they see a neighbour in want. Even so, he nonetheless didn’t anticipate to see that help for him.
“I’m very grateful that every little thing turned out the way in which it did,” he says. “With out the assistance and with out the help that we’ve gotten, we might be in a really completely different place – not a great one.”
Pondering of all of the love despatched their approach, Charisa tears up, choking on her phrases.
“It was simply insane, the variety of those that didn’t even actually know us, that heard our story,” she says. “Simply the outpouring of affection, it’s insane. It’s unbelievable. I might by no means think about deserving this a lot.”
Kristin Gardiner is a reporter with the SaltWire Community in Prince Edward Island. She might be reached by e mail at [email protected] and adopted on Twitter @KristinGardiner.
