Indian-origin builder offers 100 apartments to fire affected people in Canada

Mr. Dhillon's company has offered three months rent-free accommodation to the people fleeing the fires.

Source: Darryl Dyck/Bloomberg

The city of Fort McMurray has been reduced to ashes in a devastating fire in Alberta province in Canada. Its nearly 90,000 residents are now homeless after they had to evacuate the city caught in the massive blaze.

An Indo-Canadian businessman has offered help in the form of 100 rent-free homes to those affected.

Calgary-based Navjeet Dhillon, a real estate baron, has offered rent free accommodation for three months to families affected by the exodus due the disastrous fire. Most of the apartments offered were occupied within hours of his offer to lend a hand.

“They lost their jobs, lost their homes, they were lucky they still had their cars and they drove out. We tried to help them in this difficult time, said Mr. Dhillon.

This is not the first time Navjeet Dhillon has come forward to help in the hour of need. His company had put 200 suites at the disposal of Syrian refugees when they began arriving in Canada.

His company did this first when another forest fire caused evacuation of Slave Lake in Alberta in 2011.

“The biggest contribution you can do as a corporate citizen is residential accommodation. When they come here, what’s the first thing you need? It’s accommodation. We can give and contribute because it’s our business,” Hindustan Times quoted Mr. Dhillon as saying.