He was hailed as a hero.
Gerrid Hunt saved his neighbour from a devastating house fire in Lower Sackville this past winter that claimed the lives of three children.
Now, he tells our newsroom he is at a loss for words from the outpouring of community support months later, with more than $12,000 raised in a GoFundMe campaign.
“I’m speechless every time somebody shows me the page my eyes well up. My heart builds up. I can’t get over the amount of people who actually care,” Hunt says.
Hunt and his family have been living in an Airbnb because their house had too much smoke and water damage from the fire.
They have learned it will be sold instead of fixed, so they are unable to move back in.
Although the fundraiser, organized by a friend, is to help with bills, Hunt had his reservations.
“It was a bit of a ‘swallow your pride’ situation for me. Somebody had to talk me into it … remind me of some of the charity work I used to do. [They] just told me I’ve always served my community, just allow your community to serve you for once,” he says.
Tough pill to swallow
The fire was in the early morning hours on January 11.
Three children passed, the mother and a toddler escaped, while Hunt saved the father’s life by pulling him out of the home.
Hunt says he’s proud he got the father out, but it was a “tough pill to swallow” that he wasn’t able to get to the children who were five, six and nine years old.
“I needed to accept something. Something good. And allow myself to sort of accept that I truly could not have made it to those children. And if I had of made it, I probably wouldn’t have made it out of the house,” says Hunt.
Forging on
Since the tragedy, Hunt says he and his children have spoken to trauma counsellors and he is now trying to focus on the positive.
“I’ve really been focusing on the things that I have. That I could be grateful for. It’s the only thing that really helped me not focus on the things that I might be resentful about … or upset, mad,” says Hunt.
As for a place to live, Hunt adds, they have temporary accommodations until the end of June but are hoping to buy a house.
“At the end of all of this, it might actually end up being something that enables my wife and I to be able to put a down payment on a home. You never know, right? That would be amazing,” says Hunt.
That, he says, would be one positive thing to come out of all of this.
“My heart is still filled with the showing of support I never would have expected from complete strangers. My heart has definitely changed forever.”
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