Fire in Manitoba community destroys family’s home

A Manitoba couple is picking up the pieces after a fire tore through their home Friday night.

A Manitoba family whose home was destroyed in a Friday evening fire says they had trouble contacting emergency services, describing the system as “inefficient.”

When Lexi Bell and Dalis Moore came home from grabbing dinner with their baby daughter on Friday, they found smoke coming from their St. Andrews, Man., home.

The couple said they immediately called 911; however, their initial phone call disconnected. When they didn’t receive a call back, they tried calling again but kept getting put on hold.

“Then when I did, I was connected to another operator that didn’t know what was happening previously, so I was having to regive the information over and over,” Bell said.

Moore said after they called emergency services, they called their family, who was able to get to them quicker than the fire department.

“We were told that once a fire starts in a home, the home will be completely engulfed in 13 minutes,” he said.

“So, I mean, if it takes us 15 minutes to get a phone call and 20 minutes for them to show up, well, there’s no chance.”

The couple emphasized that once the first responders showed up, they were incredible and compassionate.

“It was just getting them here that was the issue,” Moore said. “Once they were here, there was no issue.”

The fire killed one of the family’s two dogs and left their home with severe damage.

“Our dog that we lost, Leroy, had such a big personality,” Bell said. “And he was just very in love with his baby sister. Our biggest protector.”

The couple said it hurts knowing the house must be demolished but added the true loss is their dog.

“Everything compared to that is miniscule,” Bell said.

“But it is still very heartbreaking when you pour everything, your everyday life, work so hard to make this beautiful home that we brought our daughter home into and in a matter of seconds it’s completely gone.”

The process of calling emergency services

Ken Peacock, St. Andrews South Hall fire chief, explained that while Winnipeg residents have their own call centre, all rural fire department calls go to Brandon and get dispatched to the local fire departments by pagers or cellphones.

“Brandon gets the call. They notice. They realize where it is by the mapping system,” he said.

“They then put out a fire page to us through a special phone number that we have, and it goes to all 26 of my members.”

Peacock emphasized that his team is made up of volunteer firefighters who have other jobs that they go to every day.

“It’s not a full-time fire department,” he said, adding that it took his department 12 minutes to get to the fire after receiving the call.

“Very few are in Manitoba, maybe half a dozen. That’s it.”

Peacock said firefighters have investigated the cause of the fire but won’t release further details.

-With files from CTV’s Harrison Shin and Zachary Kitchen