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Vol. 15, No. 23, Wednesday, May 6, 2020 www.LamontLeader.com
Fire destroys Bruderheim garage, part of home BY JANA SEMENIUK A residential fire in Bruderheim, which claimed a garage and part of the accompanying home, took neighbours by surprise on the afternoon of Apr. 30. “I came outside to check on our barbeque and the whole backyard was full of smoke,” said a neighbour who wished to remain anonymous. “Another neighbour ran over to tell me there was a fire.” Together, both neighbours ran to the burning residence. “It just started to go up in flames and once it got through the garage door, it was just a huge ball of fire,” said the source. It was discovered by the neighbours that animals were inside the home and needed to be removed. “We were able to get out two small dogs in crates,” said the source. “But there was one cat left inside that we couldn’t find.” The cat, Oreo, was eventually found alive and rescued by fire crews after he was located in the basement of the home. Fire crews from Lamont, Bruderheim and Chipman responded to the call at approximately 4:00 pm. “When we arrived on scene, we found a fully involved fire in the garage with smoke showing from the house attic vents,” said Bruderheim incident command lieutenant Correen Hosack. “The garage had a heavy fuel load causing small explosions and one large explosion making advancement for us to the garage very difficult.” Hosack added that other challenges to extinguishing the fire included weather and location. “The fire was challenging due to the close proximity of the garage to the house as well as the changing wind,” she said. “At one-point sudden wind conditions forced an evacuation of fire crews from the house.” Hosack confirmed that a backdraft and roll over had occurred with five firefighters inside and four firefighters
fighting the fire from ladders on the roof. All crew members were accounted for in less than three minutes without injury. “It was not a textbook fire by any means, but it was contained in a textbook way,” mentioned Hosack. “Those guys and girls work like dogs. They are a really good group.” Additional challenges included crowd control. With more people at home than usual at the time of the fire due to COVID 19 provincial lockdowns, a crowd of onlookers swelled to approximately 40 people. “Additional police presence was needed for crowd control,” confirmed Hosack. She added that police were dispatched from Fort Saskatchewan as well as a peace officer from Lamont County. Hosack also wanted to remind onlookers how to stay safe while a fire is happening in your neighbourhood. “Residential fires are dangerous. Ideally it is best to stay home when there is a fire in your neighbourhood but people are naturally curious. If you have to come out stay off the actual road. Stay on the sidewalks at least five houses away from the fire. If you are standing beside a fire hydrant that is probably a very bad place to stand,” she said. “Standing downwind of a burning home is also very dangerous. The smoke created from the burning of the building materials is very carcinogenic. The black smoke is particularly bad.” Hosack also wanted to remind people to avoid entering a burning structure and allow fire crews room to work once they arrive on scene. “This fire was extremely unstable. By opening the door, it could have caused a backdraft which would have made the fire considerably worse and unpredictable,” she added. Hosack included that the fire was brought under control by a total of 22 firefighters in just over three hours. Crews spent an additional four hours
Fire crews battle a backyard blaze on April 30 in Bruderheim. The fire engulfed the detached garage, where the fire began, and quickly spread to the house. Two dogs and a cat escaped the inferno and no other injuries were reported. at the scene doing clean up, salvage, securing of the home, plus ensuring all hot spots were extinguished. “Thankfully there was no one home at the time of the fire,” added Hosack. “The cause is still under investigation. All we know for sure is it started in the garage.” Part of Bruderheim’s Emergency Management Plan includes Emergency Social Services. The homeowner and his family, including the two dogs and one cat, were quickly attended to by Sherry Cote, director of legislative services who is also a member of Bruderheim’s ESS. “When there’s a fire we make sure victims have what they need,” said
Bruderheim chief administrative officer Patty Podoborozny. “In this case, the victims expressed that they would need shelter so we accommodated them at our Studio 6 hotel and provided coupons for meals. Their insurance will eventually kick in but we will be here to help them until then.” Bruderheim Mayor Karl Hauch expressed gratitude to firefighting personnel as well as town employees. “We are thankful that we have such a dedicated and professional team looking after us in our town’s time of need,” he said. Police continue to investigate the cause of the fire.