Brant woman lives in garden shed after fire destroys house

A woman from the hamlet of Brant southeast of Calgary has been living in her garden shed since her house burneddown two weeks ago.

Lavonna Hogan lost everything in the Oct. 25 blaze, and she did not have insurance coverage.

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Since then Hogan and her cats have lived in her garden shed without plumbing, insulation or heat.

Now her friends and family are rallying to get her back into a proper home. They've set up a GoFundMepage to raise money.

They are in the process of getting her a mobile home, but Hogan is not sure how she will pay for the utility hook-ups.

"It's a new start, kindness has come in," Hogan said."I mean there's hope, there's hope."

In the meantime, Hogan has had to take time off from her work as cleaning houses.

"She's not a materialistic person, she just deserves to have the common comforts of living with power and water and heat, you know, she's not going to want fancy things," said Kristin Yakiwchuk, one of her employers.

Hogan says her experience should be a reminder to people to haveinsurance.

Brant is about 35 kilometres southeast of High River.