Oliveira had just come home from a graduation breakfast with her girlfriends from Catholic Central High School and was sleeping in her room when she heard her mom screaming that the house was on fire.
“It’s like a nightmare,” Oliveira said about the housefire Thursday afternoon that brought firefighters to their home on Buckingham St. in London’s south end.
Fire Prevention Inspector Brent Smith said that the fire started outside the house, but then ran up into the soffits and then into the attic of the home, destroying about half the roof of the house.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Alina’s mom, Anna, was the first to smell the fire and said she “smelled burnt plastic,” and looked out into the backyard and saw the eaves trough was on fire and the backyard was full of grey smoke.
Sitting on the grass across the street from her burnt home swarming with firefighters, Alina Oliveira was surrounded by her best friends. The four girls — Jessica Moco, Megan Costello, Nikkie Rodrigues and Cassandra Haggarty — were driving through the neighbourhood when they saw smoke and realized it was their friend’s home.
“The car was still moving and we just jumped out and started pounding on the door calling Alina, just making sure she was OK and the dogs were out,” Moco said
Oliveria is comforted knowing her friends have her back.
“It’s one of the greatest feelings knowing they were here,” she said. “One of my friends, Jessica, said however big the fire was, she was coming in to get me, no matter what — and that’s pretty comforting to hear.”
