Fire in Fort Qu’Appelle damages two homes, forcing three families out

Two homes were destroyed in a fire in Fort Qu’Appelle on Tuesday.

The blaze forced three families out of their homes.

David Sabirsh, chief of the Fort Qu’Appelle Fire Department, said firefighters responded to a call about a house fire on Pasqua Avenue South in Fort Qu’Appelle shortly before 6 p.m.

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“When we arrived, flames were coming through the roof and through the picture window, and fire had spread to the neighboring house and the north wall of that house was on fire as well,” Sabirsh said.

Nobody was hurt, but Sabirsh said he was told that a bystander jumped into action to help make sure everyone got outside safely.

“He was gone before we arrived on scene, but yeah, we believe that someone went in to make sure that the houses were clear,” the fire chief said.

Sabirsh said it appears both homes were total losses after the fire, impacting three families.

“The first house is a rental property. There was a suite upstairs and a suite in the basement,” he said. “Both were occupied, and then the neighboring house had a single person living in it.”

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Witness says neighbours rallied together to help

One Fort Qu’Appelle resident described seeing the blaze up close.

Randy Beach owns Beach’s Pet Place in Fort Qu’Appelle. He said he was locking up the store along with his wife at around 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday. When they looked towards their home two blocks away Beach said they could see a “huge” plume of smoke.

“It looked like it was our house that was on fire,” he said.

The pair raced to their car, trying to get in touch with their 13-year-old son, who was at home.

“Until we could talk to our kids or find out where they were, that was one of the scariest moments. My heart was racing pretty good,” Beach said.

While both of Beach’s teenage sons were safe, as was their home, the fire destroyed two homes behind his.

Beach described arriving and seeing flames shooting out of windows.

Racing into his backyard, he said it looked like a “war zone.”

“The smoke was like just so thick and so everywhere. So I was just like ‘Holy moly! Is the fence catching on fire? Is it spreading? What’s happening?’” Beach recalled.

Despite the fire’s intensity, he said the close-knit community pulled together to help.

According to Beach, the owner of a local car wash come over with a hose, spraying water in an effort to tame the flames. Another neighbour went into the basement of one of the two homes, helping get a man out.

Beach said his 17-year-old son and another man even smashed the back door of another home because they were worried someone was still inside, though it turned out that the neighbour was at work during the fire.

Though no one was injured, Beach said it’s still hard to see “people that you know losing everything that they have.”

–with files from 650 CKOM’s Marija Robinson