A Winnipeg family of seven has been forced to stay in a hotel for the holidays after a house fire destroyed their home and everything they owned.

"I'm still in shock about it. I just want to go there and it be there," Candyce Pelletier said.

On Friday afternoon, Winnipeg emergency crews were called to the home in the 900 block of Lipton Street where Pelletier and her family used to live.

District fire Chief Rick Sterzer said there was heavy smoke seen coming from the back of the building when they arrived. The fire had spread through the basement, main floor and attic by the time crews arrived, he added. Candyce Pelletier and her six kids are staying in a hotel for the holidays after losing everything they owned in a house fire on Friday. (Erin Brohman/CBC)

The fire forced five kids from the home, the oldest of which was 13, Sterzer said. Pelletier's sixth child wasn't home at the time.

The children were sent to hospital where they were treated for smoke inhalation.

Pelletier said she left her kids at home in the care of her 13-year-old daughter Cerra Lynn Pelletier.

"I was scared," Cerra Lynn said, adding she also had to round up four of her younger siblings and get them out of the house. "I was too busy panicking."

Pelletier said that one of her children accidentally started the fire, but fire officials have not confirmed the cause of the blaze. The family was renting the home and didn't have insurance.

'Never thought it would happen to us'

Fire crews were called to a home on Lipton Street near Notre Dame Avenue Friday at about 4 p.m. (Wendy Buelow/CBC) Pelletier said she is still having a hard time believing her home is gone.

"I would hope it would never happen to anybody ever," she said. "I've seen this on the news where it happened to people before, but I never thought it would happen to us."

Cerra Lynn said it isn't just the loss of their home and possessions around the holidays that pains her. The family cat was killed in the fire, she said.

Her mother said the timing of the fire couldn't have been worse.

"Everything was starting to work out. We finally had the tree set up where it didn't fall down, because we had the glass frozen ornaments the night before … and then we had no home," she said. "It's hard for me to ask anyone for help, it really is. That's why I called [Cheryl Peters]."

Peters, an assistant manager at Living Bible Explorers, is helping the family raise money for necessities and a new place to stay.

"We got the word out on social media and people have been responding already," Peters said. "We're just looking for ways they have a roof over their head, and clothing, and food and looking for what's next and how to get them re-established."

Peters hosted a dinner Saturday for families involved in Living Bible Explorers and took donations for the Pelletier family.

"Our goal is that we'd be able to find a place that they can rent and start over again, and my goal is before Christmas," Peters said. "I know people will come through with furniture once we have a place for them to live, but really the goal is that they'd get to make a home again."

Living Bible Explorers, which is a licensed charity, is continuing to take donations for the family.

Several thousands of dollars has been raised so far, but the goal is to raise enough to get them into more permanent housing, she said.

"I just want to get home and have Christmas with my kids," said Pelletier.

Money for the Pelletier family is being raised through the Living Bible Explorers website or over the phone at 204-786-8667.