CREDIT: FRANCIS SIEBERT
The London Fire Department responded to a call about a fi re at an apartment building on Oxford Street across from T-Building.

A student in the School of Human Services was due to report to 1451 Oxford St. E on November 3 – the day the building caught fire.

When news broke that the building – under Keith Charles’s People Helping People organization – caught fire, the student’s program co-ordinator went to Carling Arenas to make sure her student was all right.

“[The student] wasn’t physically there when the fire happened, but she was due to have been there,” said Elaine Gamble, Fanshawe’s senior manager of corporate communications. “That was our primary concern – was to find out what happened to our student.”

Soon after, the co-ordinator and chair of the School decided to end the placement relationship with People Helping People.

“Given the severity of the incident and the real concerns around safety and that building … they determined that they would not be working with [the organization] anymore,” Gamble said.

Though two Fanshawe staff did a walk-through of 1451 Oxford St. E before placing students there, Gamble says there were no red flags that popped up and that the staff weren’t necessarily looking for sub-par living conditions.

“They wouldn’t have been necessarily looking for those kinds of things,” Gamble said. “The students would not have been trained to flag or identify concerns of that nature because they were really just there to sit and talk with people.”

“[The students are] not giving personal care,” she said. “The whole purpose of the placement was to have them go in and sit in a living room and maybe play cards or talk to the residents.”

“They would never have been in a resident’s bedroom.”

There have been five students placed with People Helping People, but Gamble says the College’s involvement is recent and spans two years. The college is moving on from People Helping People.

“Given the seriousness and the concerns of the safety and the conditions of some of these homes, the college decided it was best to move on and find other placements for students in the future.

The incident in question occurred on the morning of November 3 when a fire broke out at the building resulting in one death.

The building serves as a group home in London that houses people with disabilities, addictions and mental illnesses. An investigation has launched since, and there’s speculation that there are more homes like this in the area.