Some days life offers up more excitement than you expect, or really need for that matter. Yesterday was one of those.
Yesterday happened to be Travis' fifth birthday, although the celebration really took place on Saturday (can't be celebrating on the Sabbath you know). The day had gotten off to a relatively slow start, with everyone sleeping in and me going back to sleep after the clients had been fed and watered. At one, Leah was called into work as they had no staff show up and they needed her. So with not much to do I went into the office and started to do some office work for one of the clients, emailing photos to his office.
Travis came into the office and, as is his habit, he climbed up onto the desk to look out the window. "Dad, next door has a fire.", he said. "A fire?" I thought to myself and got up and looked out. Next door did indeed have a fire, a blaze was raging under the front steps and across the front of the house, fanned by a strong wind. As I picked up the phone to call the Fire Dept, I saw two young men running into the burning house. Fearing someone was trapped inside (Leah's cousin's family lives there, they have five young children), I put down the phone, told Travis to look after his sister and ran over.
Dwight and Julia had been storing supplies from the mine cafeteria where he works, outside of their house, under and next to the step. When I got to the house these boxes were fully involved (fire speak for really burning) and the front of their half of the duplex was on fire. Just as I ran up, the two young men made a dash at the stairs, hesitated, then tried again and ran inside. I followed them up the stairs (flames were coming up through the metal stairs and between the slats of the deck) and into the house. Inside the two guys were gathering up some of the belongings and I asked if anyone was still inside, they said that everyone had gotten out, so I told them to get out and followed them back outside. In that short time period the deck of the stairs was now in flames.
Standing watching the fire, I sent someone to call the fire dept as I still hadn't heard the siren. It was then I thought about the other half of the duplex(this is where we lived for over two years while we built the House) and asked if anyone knew if Adrian and Vicky were out. No one knew, so I went to check. After kicking in the locked porch door (mountie training does come in handy) I ran inside yelling. Turns out they were home, also having a lazy day as I woke them from a late sleep.
With everyone out of the duplex and a crowd gathering there was little that could be done until the Fire truck arrived. A couple of us moved a four wheeler from in front, which had already begun to smoke and char from the heat.
The House became a gathering point for family and other onlookers. There was no power in the neighbourhood because of the fire, so I passed out juice and ice tea until we ran out (no power - no coffee, tea, and the water pump doesn't work). Travis had been thoroughly scared by the whole thing and cried continually for about an hour until he finally settled down. We had a long talk last night about what had happened, and he had a lot of questions, and in the end I think he still wants to be a fire fighter when he grows up.
The fire proved very stubbern (indeed the firefighters just left again after the ruins began smoking this morning again. Part of the difficulties in the north is that there are no fire hydrants here. Fire trucks rely on the same water trucks that supply our domestic water. Only one water truck was operating until late in this game, and the fire would get beaten down, but then the fire truck would run out of water and the fire would gain the upper hand again, until the water truck could return from the four or five kilometre trip to the water supply. Had luck intervened in the form of a water truck being nearby early, about the time I arrived, the building might have been saved. Sadly luck was not on anyone's side yesterday.
So in the end, everything was lost. Adrian and Vicky may have been able to salvage some things but for the most part two families have lost everything. The likely cause? A visitor to Dwight and Julia's had a smoke on the steps. He set down his cigarette and went inside briefly and when he came back out it was gone. He thought nothing more of it and left. About a hundred metres up the road they looked back and saw the boxes on fire, returned and got everyone else out. The truly fortunate thing is that no one was hurt.
Oh yeah, the Narwhal came into Victor Bay last night.
Here is a short video of the fire, after it had flared up again for the second time.
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