Saskatoon — As Shannon Kay gathered her children to head out of their Buena Vista home on Dec. 12, she suddenly heard cries from one of her seven children as flames and smoke punched through the child’s room. “By the time I got up the stairs my oldest daughter had all my children at the front door, and I glanced up at the stairwell and all I could see was flames and smoke,” Kay said. Rushing out of the home, some barefooted, Kay said she and her children could only salvage a few personal items before the Saskatoon Fire Department arrived. Kay said the family watched the fire-suppression effort from the vehicle parked on the street in the 100 block of 8th Street East. In a news release, the fire department estimated damage to the home to be around $150,000. Since the fire, Kay and her family have been staying at the Ramada Hotel, where they’re trying to stay positive while looking for a new home before Christmas. “A lot of people have been supportive with us and making things easier, comforting my children, talking to them and helping us,” Kay said. While her children made it out safely, a household pet, a cat named Coco, did not. This week, Kay learned her daughter’s cat, and a cat her children had grown very attached to, was hit by a passing vehicle as the cat ran from the house fire, Kay said. The fire department said investigators could not pinpoint exactly what caused the fire, but an upstairs bedroom outlet is a possible cause. Kay said she was shocked to see smoke and fire billowing upstairs in her home because at the time she didn’t hear any smoke detectors or fire alarms sounding. Afterwards, Kay said a fire investigator said she was lucky this happened at a time when the family was awake. “He pretty much told me if this was to happen at 2 a.m., you and your children would not have made it out of this house,” Kay said. Learning about Kay’s family, next door neighbour Mike McCoy set up a GoFundMe Page to support his neighbour. As of Tuesday night, McCoy said he personally collected over $1,100 with more coming from the online fundraiser.
