Edithvale mum finds hope after losing everything in house fire

An Edithvale single mum was asleep with her two children when she woke to her house in flames. Now she says her faith in humanity has been restored after the community banded together to help out.

The family lost their home and most of their possessions in a house fire in Edithvale on Sunday. Picture: Josie Hayden

A single mum who lost everything in a house fire says the tragedy has restored her faith in humanity.

Leah Lindsay was asleep with daughter Jorgia, 12 and son Zeke, 10, at her Edithvale home on the night of Sunday, June 23, when she woke to Jorgia screaming and her house engulfed in flames.

“My daughter basically kicked my door open and I came out to see the fire in the back of the house and the dog barking and going silly, and just then the fire alarm went off,” Ms Finger said.

“I grabbed a bucket of water but realised the whole loungeroom, ceiling, was gone and we had to get outside.
“Everything seems like a lifetime in those moments but I just remember the redness coming out the windows and feeling sick, standing there crying.”

Ms Lindsay — whose ex-husband was seriously injured in a tragic incident when Zeke was four months old — said without any family in Victoria it had been a rough road to finally find their feet.

Jorgia and Zeke.

She said the family moved to Edithvale for a sea-change, but the fire had knocked them down again.

Ms Lindsay said she found herself sitting outside “unable to function” in her PJs at 2am.

She drove to her former neighbour’s house in Upper Beaconsfield and has since been staying at her boss’s Airbnb in St Kilda.

Then the “generous Bayside and Kingston communities” stepped in, offering the family food, clothing and furniture via a Facebook post.

But without a long-term home, Ms Lindsay says her life has been put on hold and she is unable to accept people’s generous offers.

“The community has been amazing; it’s incredible, but we have nowhere to put anything so hopefully we can find something soon,” Ms Lindsay said.

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“We’re waiting on the insurance company or a furnished rental to become available.”

She said being left with nothing — not even “jocks and socks for her kids” — had made her realise that the most important thing was family.
“We’ve lost our newborn photos, we’ve lost our IDs and it’s awful but you don’t play a victim,” Ms Lindsay said.

“You go on, you realise nice people do exist and we’re all alive and still healthy and have each other.”

The cause of the fire is not yet known.