HALIFAX - Mourners filled a cavernous hall today with an emotional outpouring of support for the grieving parents of seven children killed in a Halifax house fire.
Coffins carrying the seven Barho children's remains arrived for their public funeral in a series of hearses at the Cunard Centre on the Halifax waterfront.
The sobbing of their mother was the only sound in the silent hall as the white coffins, some of them quite small, were brought in by an honour guard.
Imam Abdallah Yousri says he'd wanted Kawthar Barho to see the widespread support and sympathy from the community.
Mourner Cindy Samson, who was among about two thousand people who attended, says she doesn't know Kawthar Barho, but she and her family are ``our family,'' and she wanted to be there for them.
Natalie Horne, vice-president of the community group that sponsored the Barhos' refugee claim, told Barho they were grateful to have had a chance to get to know her children.
Seven black hearses were lined up outside in the cold winter sun, as each coffin was carried, one at a time, back outside.
Following the funeral service, there was to be a burial at a Muslim cemetery in Hammonds Plains.
The children's father - Ebraheim Barho - remained in hospital recovering from extensive burns suffered in the Quartz Drive blaze on Tuesday.
Early Tuesday, the Quartz Drive house fire killed all of the Barho children: Ahmad, 14; Rola, 12; Mohamad, 9; Ola, 8; Hala, 3; Rana, 2 and Abdullah, who was born in Canada on Nov. 9.
The cause of the fire remains unclear.
The scale of the tragedy for the young family who arrived in Nova Scotia in September 2017 as refugees has struck a chord with Canadians.
A GoFundMe campaign had raised more than $562,000 by Saturday afternoon, with a $1-million goal.
The Barho family lived in Elmsdale, a 30-minute drive north of Halifax, when they first arrived in Nova Scotia and were embraced by residents there.
They had moved to the Halifax suburb of Spryfield to take advantage of language training and other immigrant services, and had planned to return to Elmsdale next month.
The family was among 1,795 Syrian refugees who have come to Nova Scotia in recent years.
The Trudeau government granted asylum to 40,000 Syrian refugees in 2015-16.
A brutal civil war has raged across Syria since 2011, claiming more than 400,000 lives.