Interlake family that lost home to fire 9 years ago narrowly avoids repeat as blaze levels barn

The Saunders family lost their home in a fire nearly a decade ago and narrowly escaped having to watch the same thing happen again last weekend, as one of several spring grass fires sizzled through their Interlake property and reduced their barn to ashes.

"It was pretty emotional for my family," said Rebecca Saunders. "We lost our house nine years ago, we lost my brother 5½ months ago, and now [we were] about to lose our house again."

Saunders is enrolled in post-secondary school now in Winnipeg, but went home for the weekend to visit her parents in Eriksdale — about 130 kilometres northwest of the city — when the fire hit.

Her mother had just woken up from a nap when Saunders arrived home to find her brother and father out back, trying to snuff out the encroaching grass fire with shovels.

"Had my mom been at home by herself, and she would've been sleeping, it could've been a lot worse outcome than what it was," she said.

A fire destroyed their home on April 27, 2009, when no one was home. They were fortunate to have only lost a barn and shed this time around, Rebecca said, but others nearby weren't so lucky.

Homes burn down in Armstrong 

On Sunday, two homes in the rural municipality of Armstrong, about 50 kilometres east of the Saunders family's home, burned down in another grass fire.

So too did the home of Stuartburn Reeve Jim Swidersky, about 160 kilometres away, in the southeast of the province.

Just to the north and east of Stuartburn, the rural municipality of Piney called a state of emergency on Monday as swirling winds helped turn the fire into an eight kilometre-long inferno that threatened the communities of Badger, Zhoda and others in the southeast.

Parts of southern Manitoba are experiencing some of the driest spring conditions in decades and burn bans are in effect throughout much of the south and Interlake.

Though the largest of the fires remains in the southeast, several grass fires have developed in and around Winnipeg, which is in the midst of its driest spring in 30 years and fourth-driest since 1872.

'There is no house'

Rebecca Saunders remembers well how she learned her family's home had burned back in 2009.

Being dragged into the principal's office that spring day is seared into her memory.

"I was in my Grade 9 year, it was gorgeous out, and everyone was having a good day," Saunders recalled.

Her mom had called the school in a panic to tell her the house had been destroyed in a fire, and along with it nearly all their cherished possessions.

"She was like, 'Beck, there is no house.' And I was like, 'Well, how bad is my room?' And she was like, 'Beck you have no room,'" she said. "It just burned so quick and we weren't able to get there to save anything."

Eriksdale fire Chief Craig Pottinger attended the fire at the Saunders family's home on Sunday with his crew of 17. He was also there nine years ago when the family lost their home.

He says on Sunday, he was so focused on getting the fire out that he hadn't considered the fact it was almost nine years to the day after he pulled up to a fully-engulfed home on the property.

"It was terrible," Pottinger recalled of the 2009 house fire. "You lose all your personal items and memorabilia you can't replace."

12 fires in 2 weeks

Pottinger said the local crew has seen an above-average number of grass fires for this time of year — 12 or more in the past two weeks alone.

"Sometimes we're going twice a day," he said. "It's windy and hot again, so we're all on edge just waiting."

They were actually called in to help douse the blazes in Armstrong this past Sunday but had to focus on the fire at the Saunderses.

The team managed to head off the grass fire and put out the barn blaze Sunday, though the building was destroyed.

After it was out, Pottinger remembered visiting the Saunders family the night of the fire nine years ago to check in on how they were doing. Several other locals had already beat him to it.

"Something like that happens and this community jumps in pretty quick and helps, the whole community does," he said.

Community rallies

In 2009, the community rallied around the family, donating clothes and other items to help them get back on their feet. The outpouring of support was so strong, Rebecca recalls bags upon bags of items filling up the local hotel rooms where they temporarily stayed before moving into a trailer near where their house once stood.

The family built a new home over the next few months; Saunders's parents have lived there ever since.

She said she feels for the two families in Armstrong who lost their homes last weekend and hopes they, too, end up on the receiving end of the small-town support her family once received.

"We couldn't keep up with the donations," she said. "That's one thing about small towns I will always love — that whenever there is a disaster or crisis, the community comes in like a big, giant family."