ATHABASCA — Nearly three months after a suspicious fire that garnered province-wide attention and made headlines at the biggest news outlets in Alberta, Jessica Delgado and family are in the process of healing, with the help of the community they fell in love with last year.
On Sept. 9, Athabasca RCMP and Athabasca County Fire Services responded to an early morning report of a fire north of town. The call came from Delgado, mother of five, wife of German Martenez, and resident of Athabasca County for a little more than a year.
When emergency crews arrived on scene, they saw multiple blazes and a message scrawled in red spray paint on the garage which read “go home,” in capital letters. Staff Sgt. Mark Hall said police are awaiting the fire investigator's report from Athabasca County fire services before continuing with their own investigation.
“It was very shocking to us that we were targeted,” said Delgado in a Nov. 14 interview. “I’m hoping it was nobody from the community because it just doesn’t make sense that somebody (from) this magical community would do something like this, but I can’t speak for everybody.”
The family of seven made it out of their home unharmed, but not unscathed. After a week spent at the Athabasca Days Inn hotel, Delgado said the family found a place to stay in neighbouring Lac La Biche County.
“We’re all devastated that we had to temporarily move away,” said Delgado. Two of her five children attended school in Athabasca, and she said the move to new schools has taken a toll on their morale.
“My son, he’s in Grade 10,” said Delgado. “He starts talking about his friends that he misses.” She said her nine-year-old daughter had a tearful reunion with an old friend at the Taste of Athabasca event and told her mom she was surprised at how much she missed her old life.
And the toll on Delgado has been constant. “As a mom right now, everything has been go, go, go, go. There’s no time to stop, there’s no time to break, there’s no time to breathe. Looking back at everything, I can see the stress starting to affect me,” she said.
In addition to losing their house, their clothes, their possessions, and a sense of home, Delgado said shortly after the arson the family also lost their dog of five years named Luna. The dog was struck by a vehicle while still at the Athabasca acreage.
In spite of the devastating losses, Delgado said the family did receive a recent surprise in the form of 18 puppies. Two rescue dogs the family had previously taken in both gave birth following the fire, and a number of puppies are still looking for homes at no cost to anyone interested.
A caring community
Despite the series of unfortunate events Delgado and family have experienced in the last three months, the mother of five said the outpouring of empathy from the community has been astounding.
“We were so amazed, we were just so humbled,” she said. Community groups and individuals took to social media to post messages of support for the family and organize donations of food, clothing, and other necessities.
“We were overwhelmed with all these responses … there was just all these people sending all these nice messages, like they can’t believe stuff like that happened to us, and to hang in there. There were people that would bring us warm meals and stuff like that. It was just amazing seeing how Athabasca came through for us.”
Delgado said deliveries of medicine, diapers, and toiletries helped the family of seven get through the week of hotel living. Community members donated bedding and dishware, Athabasca Family and Community Support Services provided clothing, and grocery store gift cards were donated by the Athabasca Native Friendship Centre.
A GoFundMe for the family was started by Martenez’s boss days after the incident. A total of 31 donations have raised more than $10,000 to help the family get back on their feet. The open-ended fundraiser has a goal of $25,000, although donations have slowed in the last month.
The Athabasca Lions Club was yet another community organization that stepped up to offer support in the form of a $1,500 cheque. “They brought it to us instead of putting it in the GoFundMe page, because they wanted us to have something in our pockets right now.”
A ‘magical feeling’
In the immediate wake of the fire, the family expressed hesitation about staying in the area. “It’s scary … I don’t want to come back here and put my kids in danger,” Martenez told CBC.
But Delgado said the family felt an uncanny sense of home in Athabasca from their first visit to the community and are looking forward to possibly returning to the area one day.
The family spent 10 years in Calgary before moving to Red Deer where Delgado’s family had settled, but the southern Alberta city wasn’t what they were looking for.
“We have five kids so they can get pretty noisy. We started looking around for acreages and all of a sudden my daughter says, ‘I’ve heard of Athabasca University and Athabasca seems like a very nice town.’”
Delgado said their first visit to the area was in March 2022 when she was 35 weeks pregnant with their youngest son. “It was wintertime, but we fell in love with this place. It was just magical, when we went in and (saw) that big sign that says welcome.”
“Most of the towns in Alberta don’t look pretty at all in the wintertime, but this one to us, it was just cozy, and I had this magical feeling,” said Delgado. She recalled the moment the couple knew they were in the right spot, during a comfortable lunch at Tim Hortons.
“My husband says to me, ‘We’re so far away from home, do you even have a bag with you or anything if this baby decides to come?’ And I said no, but I’m not worried for some reason. I feel comfortable, I feel safe.
“He’s like ‘Okay, you know what? We’re going to start looking for a house here because apparently this is home.’”
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