HALIFAX -- Hundreds of people, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, gathered in Halifax's main square Wednesday night in support of a Syrian refugee family that lost seven children in a fast-moving house fire.
They gathered at Grand Parade in front of city hall and listened solemnly as the children's names and ages were read out followed by a moment of silence.
They were: Ahmad, 14; Rola, 12; Mohamad, 9; Ola, 8; Hala, 3; Rana, 2 and Abdullah, who was born in Canada in November.
"The Barho family arrived in Halifax as refugees but they became our neighbours. They became our friends," Halifax MP Andy Fillmore said in prepared remarks.
"Yet, the loss we feel tonight is so heavy because they were our neighbours. Syrian refugees, yes. But Nova Scotians, too."
Trudeau didn't speak, but stood among the crowd with his hands cupped together and his head down, before heading to a previously planned party fundraiser.
The Barho family came to Nova Scotia in 2017 as sponsored refugees; the seven children died early Tuesday in a fire that swept through their suburban home.
Imam Abdallah Yousri of the Ummah Mosque and Community Centre in Halifax said Wednesday that the father, Ebraheim Barho, remains in critical condition in hospital.
As for his wife Kawthar Barho, Yousri said she remains so distraught that she says little, aside from repeating the name of her youngest child, four-month-old Abdullah.
Yousri said plans for a burial service remain on hold because the children's bodies have yet to be released by the medical examiner.
A fundraising campaign launched to help the parents quickly surpassed its initial $300,000 goal.
A GoFundMe page had collected more than $352,000 as of Wednesday evening, with its stated goal raised to $1 million. The effort is organized by family friends and the Imam Council of Halifax.
The city's official "community gathering" came 24 hours after a more spontaneous gathering Tuesday outside the charred remnants of the family's Quartz Drive house.
Neighbours and other carried flowers and wept openly in the frigid darkness, looking for solace in the company of neighbours and listening to a Christian pastor attempt to gather community strength for the Muslim refugees from Syria beginning to make a new life in Canada.
Josh Crawford sang "Amazing Grace" and said they all needed to draw upon their faith to recover from the tragedy.
"The next couple of days are going to be hard, but it's going to be the weeks and the months to come that this family is going to need you the most," said Crawford, whose mother works at the school attended by the two oldest children.
They added more flowers, candles and teddy bears to a memorial propped up against a light standard in front of the family's house.
Iain McLaren and Kristen MacDiarmid said they had themselves moved into the neighbourhood two years ago and wanted to show their support to the community that had welcomed them.
"When you hear about these things in the media, you think these happen so far away, but today it happened so close and to have it happen to a family that's from Syria, it's just a devastating blow to the neighbourhood," McLaren said.
The fire struck not long after midnight on Tuesday morning. Neighbours said they were awoken by a woman's screams and looked out to see flames that quickly engulfed the entire upper floor.
The family had only lived in the Spryfield for a few months, having moved into Halifax from Elmsdale, N.S., to take advantage of language training and other immigrant services.
They had fled war-torn Syria and, with the help of a private sponsorship group, came to Canada in September 2017. A spokesperson for the group said the family had planned to return to Elmsdale next month.
