After fire destroyed his home, St. John's man wonders how he'll pick up the pieces

Maurice Doyle was asleep on Monday morning when his girlfriend shook him awake and said their house was on fire.

"Everybody was telling me to [go], screaming at me to get out," said Doyle in an interview with CBC on Thursday. "I grabbed my animals and I just come out and realized the house is, like, fully up in flames."

The fire started at a home on Lime Street before jumping to Doyle's building on Livingstone Street. The fire destroyed both buildings, one of which belonged to the Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation. In that building there were four apartments, one where Doyle and his girlfriend lived. 

All that's left in the unit now has been completely destroyed by water damage from the firefighting efforts, and subsequent rainy weather.

On Thursday afternoon, the RNC told CBC News that the investigation into the cause of the fire had not yet been concluded.

Doyle said the Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation has placed them in emergency housing for now, and are working on getting them a new, more permanent solution.

On Thursday, Doyle and his girlfriend were able to go back into the burned-out building to see if they could recover any of their belongings.

"We can't get nothing out of there. There's nothing salvageable out of there," said Doyle. "We lost everything we ever owned." 

For now, Doyle said he is taking it day by day, but said he wishes the path forward was more clear.

"I just wanna be shown, like, someone to tell us what's the path we take now," said Doyle. 

"We don't know where to go. We're just still just going to continue asking for help, but we just need to know what's next for us." said Doyle. "Where do we turn to now?

In an interview with CBC earlier this year, Doyle expressed concerns with the housing unit he was place in on Livingstone Street.

He says that although this is not the neighbourhood he wanted to be in, this is not how he pictured getting out of this situation.

"We're just looking for a comfortable place that we can just be content, you know, that's all we want," said Doyle.