“It’s just stuff,” man says after tiny home destroyed by fire in North Okanagan

VERNON – A North Okanagan man is keeping a positive attitude after the tiny home he built went up in flames just a few days before Christmas.

“It’s just stuff,” Gordon Leschyson says. “As you can see from the way I live, stuff is not important to me.”

The former Kamloops man built the tiny home about a year-and-a-half ago, and has been living in it in Vernon for the past four-and-a-half months.

On Thursday, Dec. 21, Leschyson was at his friend’s home on Highway 97 near the Motoplex Speedway, where the tiny home is parked, when they noticed the fire.

“Somebody said ‘your house is on fire,’” Leschyson says. “I ran the 200 yards down to where it was and it was totally engulfed.”

He says the fireplace malfunctioned and despite a quick response by the local fire department, the home could not be saved. Everything he owned was inside, but he’s not dwelling on what was lost.

“I’ve gained more than I’ve lost,” he says. “I see a new beginning from it. We have some new plans already on the drawing board to make it bigger, better, stronger.”

The self-employed specialized equipment builder says he has somewhere to stay in the interim, and insists he’s not looking for any sympathy or donations.

“What I want people to see is that it’s possible for you to lose your stuff without it damaging your happiness. I see it as a new beginning,” he says.

Lesychson built the tiny home out of recycled materials and says it cost next to nothing to make. He says his reasons for building it were mostly environmental and economical. Living in it is like camping, but you don’t have to go home after, he says.

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