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MERRITT HERALD FREE
TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2015 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
FIRE DECIMATES HOME “I never expected so much help in my life, ever. I can’t even express how grateful I am.” David Dyck THE MERRITT HERALD
While the fire department begins their investigation of a house that was destroyed in last week’s fire on Priest Avenue, all of the former occupants, including a recently pregnant woman and a mother and child, are left with nothing but the clothes on their back. But Merritt has already stepped up in a big way, said one victim. “I had a couple of friends staying with me and they were looking for their own place. Altogether there were five adults and my daughter living in that house,” said Tamara Pelletier, who is now staying with her adopted mother, Betty Ann McDonnell. She said the one person who was home at the time managed to get their dogs out, but that’s all. “He heard some kind of bang and then a dog started barking,” explained McDonnell. “In the back all he could see was smoke.” Following the sound of the dogs barking, he went upstairs and found
Last Thursday evening’s house fire left five adults and a child without a home. Merritt pulled through for them. David Dyck/Herald
the dogs hiding under a bed. “He had to pull them out, they were too frightened to come out, so he grabbed them and ran out the front door in bare feet,” said
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McDonnell. “That’s all he could do.” One of the other couples is staying with family, while another was put up at a hotel by emergency social services, said McDonnell.
They need everything: clothes, furniture, bedding, towels, and dog crates. They’re essentially starting from scratch, said McDonnell. Pelletier’s daughter,
Kenya, is a size 8, with size 12 shoes. One of the girls who was staying with her from Alberta is recently pregnant and needs maternity clothes.
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“The flames were huge, and there was black smoke coming out.” Teams of firefighters, police, and paramedics were out in force on Thursday evening, responding to a house fire that broke out on the 2100 block of Priest Avenue. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but no injuries to people or pets were reported. Jamie Etchart lives just up the street from where the incident occurred. “We ran out [to the street], we saw the big smoke, we went to call 911 and we already heard the siren on their way over,” she said. “We got over there at the exact same time as the first fire truck. . . . I saw the smoke coming out of the backside, and it quickly went into the attic and into the roof.” Etchart said some neighbours were already using garden hoses in an attempt to quell the rising flames. “It was crazy. The flames were huge, and there was black smoke coming out,” she said. “But the fire department was really fast and they got it out pretty quick.” By about 8:45, fire crews were winding down, while RCMP and paramedics wandered the perimeter and neighbours and bystanders began to trickle away. “The fire’s been knocked down,” said Fire Chief Dave Tomkinson at the scene. “The firefighters are just doing overhaul right now, checking for hot spots, using thermal imaging, things like that.” Tomkinson pointed to some scoring on the siding of the house next door. “It looks like there is a little bit of heat damage to the neighbour,” he said. Firefighters remained on the scene until around midnight. The investigation will now begin to try to determine the cause of the blaze.
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