Former mayor and his siblings tried in vain to save woman from fatal house fire in Leaf Rapids, Man.

The combined efforts of a local family, police and the entire Leaf Rapids Fire Department were not enough to save a woman from a house fire Wednesday in the remote northern Manitoba community.

"We tried — me and my sister and my brother tried to get that person out of the house," said Ervin Bighetty, the former mayor of the village about 215 kilometres northwest of Thompson, who lives across the street from the fatal blaze.

"We were unable to."

Bighetty was one of the first people on the scene after he and his brother Kody were alerted at 1:15 a.m. by their sister, Bailey, who had just escaped the burning home.

"My sister was knocking on my door, banging on the door, ringing my doorbell," said Bighetty, who spent 10 years as a firefighter before retiring last year. "I answered it and I asked her, 'What's wrong?' and she's covered in smoke.

"Her shirt was burnt, her arms and her fingers, and she was telling me to go save that [woman]," he continued.

"I looked outside and the house was blazing. The fire was already really big. It was making the trees glow."

Bighetty contacted 911 immediately, then headed toward to the house on Keyask Bay with his brother and sister in hopes of rescuing the woman who was trapped inside.

"By the time we arrived to the house, the living room was already engulfed," he said. "Flames were already through the window."

Bighetty says he yelled the woman's name but there was no response.

"I was yelling in there at the top of my lungs," he said. "I told everybody that they can't go in there because you won't be able to.

"I told them we won't be able to go in there unless we had protective equipment and we don't have any of that," he said. "We're in civilian clothing and it's dangerous. Anybody that goes in there is gonna die from the smoke."

Bighetty says the best option for the group was to continue calling out in the hopes the person in the house would come toward the sound.

"We never got a response," he said. 

Moved to the rear of the building

The flames quickly grew, forcing the would-be rescuers away from the intense heat.

"There was another exit to the house and we heard a thud on the wall and we thought that was, maybe, the resident," he said. "We had ripped open back door and we started yelling from that side."

A member of the fire department arrived within a few minutes and assessed the situation.

"They had asked if there was anybody in there and we told them yes, there was," said Bighetty.

"Then they immediately drove back to the fire department and let the other other members know," he continued. "At 1:19, the fire department showed, police officers showed, and they started asking questions and we told 'em that … there was somebody in there."

The officers attempted to take a look but were told by Bighetty that they wouldn't be able to get in there without proper gear.

"It's really hot in there and it's really smoky," he said. "You won't be able to get in there."

At 1:22 a.m., Bighetty says, the fire department showed up and set up their hoses.

"They finally got the fire in the living room out and then the rest of the house," he said.

Bighetty, who served until October as mayor, says the entire eight-member fire department turned out to battle the fire. Nonetheless, it wasn't extinguished until around 5 a.m., when the body of the deceased was found.

RCMP said Wednesday the identification of the deceased is pending an autopsy by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

The RCMP said the cause of the fire is being investigated by the Office of the Fire Commissioner.