Terry and Paula Empey and their daughter woke up early Saturday morning to the smell of smoke in their house.  

Twenty minutes later fire had spread out through their entire home, many of their possessions damaged or gone.

“We've lost a lot, our living room stuff, that's stuff you can replace, we're still here and that's the main thing," says Terry Empey.

Firefighters responded to the call at around 6:00 a.m.

When crews arrived the house was filled with thick black smoke.

District Fire Chief Andrew Davidson says approximately forty firefighters responded to the incident.

"It started as a chimney fire and then escalated from there to about fifty per cent of the house," says Davidson.

To make matters worse, the Empey’s are renters, and have no insurance coverage on the possessions they lost.  

Terry says they are in process of changing insurance providers.

“We had the paper work there for our content insurance and it never happened," says Terry.

The homeowners however do have insurance.

Davidson says while the investigation is in the early stages they believe the fire started in the chimney.

The family says a kitten is missing and two pet birds are dead.

Terry says the first week of 2017 hasn’t been kind to his family,

"Lost my grandfather last night too, this morning, so, 2017 is not starting out too good," says Terry.