Speaking out after a furnace explosion lifted their Waterville, N.S. home off its foundation, a member of the family says they’re stunned by the events and grateful for the outpouring of support.
Shortly after 1 a.m. on Tuesday morning, an explosion shook the home, the result of a rupture in the oil-and wood-burning furnace, according to the Nova Scotia fire marshal.
“My whole family is trying to wrap their head around what happened,” said Velvet Eisnor, her voice hoarse from the smoke that filled the single-storey house on Porter Lane.
Eisnor was sleeping in the basement with her four-month-old baby and two nieces at the time.
“I heard one of the little girls screaming ‘nanny, nanny’ and I had a door on my face,” she said.
“I was hollering ‘Dad, help me, help me’ and I heard the baby crying and he said ‘call 9-1-1’ and I was trying to find the phone,” Eisnor recalled.
She found her cell phone and called 9-1-1. Her bedroom doors were blown out and the wall of the room her nieces were in was destroyed.
Eisnor’s parents had been sleeping upstairs — it was her mother who walked away with the most scrapes and bruises.
“She apparently heard the kids screaming and she came out into the hallway. There was a hole in the floor … she fell through it,” Eisnor said.
In the end, everyone was OK — though Eisnor’s father remains in hospital, where doctors are monitoring his heart.
“I guess we can just count our stars that we’re alive and that someone was watching over us,” Eisnor said.
Eisnor has had a difficult year.
Her partner, the baby’s father, died of a massive heart attack last June, while she was five months pregnant.
The house was insured but the family is waiting to learn the extent of the coverage.
They haven’t been allowed back inside, but an RCMP officer went in to gather a few belongings for the family.
Meanwhile, people in the family’s Annapolis Valley community have started pitching in to help.
“(A local diner) provided meals for the last two days to us. Annapolis Valley First Nations has set up a drop location for us as well,” Eisnor said.
An online fundraiser has also been set up for the Eisnor family, and friends and neighbours have been getting in touch to check-in or offer donations.
‘You don't notice it until a tragic event or something happens, then you see the true meaning of communities and how they work together to help people,” Eisnor said.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Jacqueline Foster
