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Tenants survive house fire but most belongings destroyed Continued from front
Also on hand at the Arnprior Legion were Sophia and Nick Xidous from Steve and Dennis Restaurant. About $125 was collected at the downtown Arnprior restaurant and the Xidous family added $1,000 of their own money. “And you’re my opposition,â€? joked Scissons, who ran Ken’s Kitchen until recently. As well, the restaurant provided food and vouchers for the ďŹ re victims, much of it from their own pocket after confusion over what the Red Cross was providing. Several other businesses in town collected donations for the ďŹ re victims and the Arnprior District Memorial Hospital Auxiliary’s Opportunity Shop provided them items for free. Scissons said many people have helped. For example when he tried to buy $10 of gas at Fraser’s Towing, Jim Fraser told him to â€œďŹ ll ‘er up ‌ you’re not paying. The gas is on me.â€? Scissons, whose heart troubles forced him to close Ken’s Kitchen a few months ago, has had a tough 2012. His brother is seriously ill; his son, Robert, died last month; and his daughter, Sheila, one of the tenants, lost her 14-year-old dog in the ďŹ re along with most of her belongings, including $200 bequeathed from Robert with which she was going to buy Christmas presents.
guess I was in shock,â€? she said. Chambers lost all her belongings, other than her purse and the pajamas she was wearing. “It’s losing the mementoes ‌ the pictures of children that’s the hardest,â€? she said. All the tenants were in the same boat as very little was rescued, she noted. As well, at least two of the tenants suffered smoke inhalation. Scissons, who lives next door behind Ken’s Kitchen, said that while he had insurance on the house, he lost furniture and appliances in the ďŹ re. “I’m afraid I lost a lot of stuff.â€? Scissons ran Ken’s Kitchen for 25 years before retiring, then coming back into the business a couple of years ago. His ancestors came to the Corkery area in the 1830s and at one time his grandfather and father ran the Klondike Inn on March Road.
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At the Arnprior Legion Dec. 23, Sophia and Nick Xidous of Steve and Dennis Restaurant present a grateful Ken Scissons with donations from themselves and their customers. The collection, one of several around town, was made to help victims of the Dec. 14 fire that destroyed the McGonigal Street home owned by Scissions, well-known as owner of Ken’s Kitchen restaurant.
Another tenant, Lorraine Chambers, is grateful for the donations, but is mostly just thankful to be alive. She said she was sleeping in her upstairs apartment when the ďŹ re broke out in the basement of the McGonigal Street home. “Linda (Burnett) saved my life,â€? she said. Burnett, a main oor tenant, noticed smoke coming up through her oor and sounded the alarm, ensuring Chambers and four others in the house at the time got out. Chambers said she started down the stairs in the house already ďŹ lling with smoke, but turned around to get her purse. “It wasn’t the money ‌ it was all my ID I wanted,â€? she explained. She ďŹ gured she had about 15 seconds to get out and by the time she got downstairs she could only see a couple of inches in front of her because of the thick smoke. Outside in her pajamas and bare feet in the snow, she was rescued by her hairdressers down the street at Clip and Snip Hair Design. They warmed her up with coffee and consoled her. “I
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