Residents in Colonsay, Sask. are coming together to help a man who lost everything in a house fire on Friday.
Fire chief Bruce Reinhold said crews were called out just before 5 p.m.
“We attended we were on scene at 5:12 and started spraying water immediately. Upon arrival, we noted smoke billowing from the flames visible from the back porch,” he told CTV News.
“We attacked the building vigorously. We had 12 guys attentively did the best we could with what equipment we had.”
Reinhold said the fire was under control by about 10 p.m.
“We did hotspot patrol until around 4:00 in the morning. At that time, no smoke or steam was showing. We monitored for another 30 minutes and packed up.”
He said no one was home at the time and there were no injuries reported.
Unfortunately the homeowner lost everything, resident Elisa Wilke said.
“He's starting from scratch with just the clothes on his back so we definitely feel for him and the community’s coming together,” she said.
“Me and a couple of other families here in town are helping raise donations. We're just a big community effort coming together and helping him out to restart. We've already found him a place to stay so that he's warm. Now we're just getting donations for John to be able to restart like household items.”
Reinhold said that of all the seasons, winter was the toughest to battle a house fire.
“Winter is the worst time to have them because hose lines freeze, guys freeze, your boxes freeze and you're pumping through snow. We were in snow up to our knees. And of course, as it gets wet, it gets slushy, it's really hard to move. And you need to rotate the guys in and out so they can function, to keep them warm.”
Anyone interested in helping out can email elisawilke@gmail.com
Colonsay, Sask. is about 70 kilometres southeast of Saskatoon.
-With files from John Flatters
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