'That's the anchor of the whole family': home in 100 Mile House destroyed by wildfire
Mechanic's grandchildren 'pretty devastated' it burned to ground
A home in 100 Mile House where a car mechanic ran his shop — and where three generations of family members once gathered to celebrate holidays — has been destroyed by wildfire.
Matthew Smith, the son-in-law of mechanic Stan Bandsma, told Daybreak South host Chris Walker the family is devastated at the loss. Smith and his brother are married to Bandsma's two daughters. Between them, they have seven children ranging in ages from one to 10 years old.
Smith said the children have happy memories of their grandparents' home.
"The house was a very involved part of their life," Smith said. "They would stay the night there all the time. They had playhouses for the kids, they had all sort of toys [there]," he said.
"They're pretty devastated, that's for sure."
Smith said he learned the house had been destroyed after he received photographs of the charred home from an unidentified person who is photographing the devastation in 100 Mile House.
He said the home and property burned to the ground, but he was able to identify the home's foundation from the photographs sent to him.
"It's a place that we've gone to for every Thanksgiving, Christmas. It's the place the kids really grew up [in] because I build homes and we move around a lot, so that's the anchor of the whole family," Smith said.
Smith said Bandsma has lived in the house for 20 years. His father-in-law's mechanic shop held tools he had collected over a 40-year career.
Bandsma now faces uncertainty about where he and his family will go and whether he will start another mechanic shop.
"Stan, he doesn't even really like to think about that right now. It sends his head spinning with decisions he's got to make."
Listen to the interview with Matthew Smith on CBC's Daybreak South:
With files from Daybreak South