fire at Johnny\u2019s Motel<\/a> displaced the Days for the second time this year, along with the short-term and long-term residents from four other units.<\/p>\nThey had just moved into the motel four months ago to reset and navigate insurance after losing their dream home to a fire in late September.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their home had been reduced to ash just days after completing a decade\u2019s worth of projects, renovations and landscaping on the residence, located prominently on a main street in Grand Forks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The Days’ home was located prominently in Grand Forks. Here, two deer lie outside on a sunny day. (Ritchie Day\/Submitted)<\/p>\n
Ritchie remembers how she had just settled into bed on the night of the house fire on Sept. 30, when Rene started yelling and came running into the room. He had heard a loud noise from outside and found the deck completely engulfed in fast-spreading flames.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe smoke was just so overwhelming you couldn’t even catch a little breath,\u201d said Ritchie.<\/p>\n
Ritchie said they didn\u2019t have time to grab anything as the house filled with smoke and fire. With nothing but the clothes on their backs and Rene\u2019s cellphone, they narrowly escaped and watched their house burn from the street.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo glasses, no hearing aids, no CPAp machine, nothing,\u201d said Ritchie.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Most painful was the loss of the Days’ four pet birds, who died in the fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have done anything to save them, but we just couldn’t do it. We had no chance. We barely got out.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1767083954_622_default.jpg\")
The burned remains of the Days’ home after it was reduced to ashes. (Ritchie Day\/Submitted)<\/p>\n
She said neighbours immediately came out to wrap them in blankets, give them a place to sit and a shoulder to lean on as they watched their house burn.<\/p>\n
Ritchie said she and Rene were sent to hospital overnight to be treated for smoke inhalation and monitoring while fire crews extinguished the blaze.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The cause of the fire remains a mystery to the Days.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were told the fire was a result of spontaneous combustion. I don’t know from where, I don’t know why,\u201d said Ritchie.<\/p>\n
They went from the hospital to a friend\u2019s house to recuperate and replace essential items like their glasses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ritchie said the community in Grand Forks immediately came to their aid.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe generosity was overwhelming, really. It’s a great place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1767083954_226_default.jpg\")
The Days loved living at Johnny’s Motel while they navigated the insurance process on their old home \u2014 until it was struck by fire too. (Corinne Seminoff\/Submitted)<\/p>\n
People started a fundraiser, businesses donated items, and people helped out in any way they could.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After staying with their friend for a few days, the Days moved into Johnny\u2019s Motel, which she says they absolutely loved.<\/p>\n
They planned to call the unit home for the next year as they navigated insurance claims.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That all went up in smoke on the evening of Dec. 21.<\/p>\n
‘Just devastating’<\/p>\n
Fire Chief Morgan Strohmann with the Grand Forks Fire Department said a guest\u2019s vehicle filled with Christmas presents had ignited in the motel\u2019s parking garage, quickly spreading to the building\u2019s roof.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said the cause of the vehicle fire is undetermined.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"image](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1767083955_197_default.jpg\")
Several units from Johnny’s Motel in Grand Forks, B.C. were damaged in a fire on Dec. 21, 2025. (Corinne Seminoff\/Submitted)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just devastating. It’s such a nice little spot. The people are so lovely, and they were so good to us,\u201d said Ritchie.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Half of the motel is still operational, confirmed Strohmann, but five units have been deemed unsafe due to extensive damage.<\/p>\n
The Days spent Christmas at their son\u2019s house and are currently waiting to move into one of the intact units at Johnny\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, there’s certain things you have no control over, so there’s hardly any point in getting too upset. And we’re not prepared to be depressed,\u201d said Ritchie, determined to rebuild in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-376925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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