An apartment building in Esterhazy has now been demolished after being damaged by fire over the summer. A building is planned to replace the apartment
On July 31st a three storey building housing 12 units at 322 James Street in Esterhazy was struck by lightning and then caught fire, forcing the residents to evacuate and then find new places to live.
Landlord Vince Pisak was at home when it all happened.
“I was actually at home. I live a block away and the RCMP came and woke me up. It was about 1:30 or to 2 am when I got the call,” said Pisak.
When he and his wife arrived on the scene, it was something terrifying to behold.
“I could not believe my eyes, I could not believe that, that happened,” said Pisak
Once the fire was out, the landlord stepped up the help some of the former residents.
“I had to start making sure that they had places to stay, we found places for them, we had a couple stay with us and lots of them moved on,” said Pisak.
Robert Kocalka a retired Army veteran and former Sask911 project manager was in the building when this strange and dangerous act of nature occurred.
“I just happened to be awake at the time enjoying a quiet evening and seeing a beautiful storm coming in when all of a sudden this big boom that sounded like a train, hit the building. Nothing happened except my TV went out. The power even stayed on. I had my windows open and I was trying to get my TV going again. About 10 minutes had passed when thick white smoke started pouring into my window. I looked out my window and down and saw that the building was on fire,” said Kocalka.
He immediately got on the phone.
“I called 911 at just shy of 1 am. A huge lightning bolt hits the building. I didn’t really know if it hit the side of the building, but people said they heard it right across town,” said Kocalka.
At first it seemed that the bolt did not do much damage, but that would soon change.
“The fire was about 10 or 15 feet below me climbing up against the side of the building, but almost in a funnel shape. It was crazy,” said Kocalka.
While on the phone with the authorities, he realized that he had to get out of there.
“I called 911 and said it’s the large building on the west side of town. I had to get out immediately because the vinyl siding amd insulation that caught fire was creating a super toxic white smoke. You couldn’t even take a breath. As I was talking to the 911 operator I was running out the door, knocking on everyone’s door,” said Kocalka.
The building’s residents seemed to have been mostly workers at the Mosaic Potash mine and it appeared that very few were home that fateful night.
“Fortunately most of the occupance were on night shift. If I had to guess I would say there was about a half dozen of us, maybe. It was hard to tell. By the time I had collected my senses, the fire department had showed up in a timely manner,” said Kocalka.
Kocalka was impressed with how fast the fire department showed up.
“It is hard to say when you are in a panic like that, but they were there in about 10 minutes. Most of the guys on the bottom floor didn’t know what was going on because, other than the lightning bolt there was no sound. The thing just started burning. The fire fighters came and put it out. We all went and grabbed a place to stay for the evening,” said Kocalka.
He alerted everyone to the danger. Everyone made it out okay, but the fire did take their possessions.
“I came back the next day and it was clear, all of us lost everything. What had happened was when the fire lit up it went up the side of the building and it caught the roof on fire. So, instead of the building burning, the roof burned. The flames were in my apartment in 30 seconds. I went down and knocked on everyone’s door, but then I wanted to back up and at least grab a wallet or something, but you couldn’t,” said Kocalka.
The building will be rebuilt, Pisak said, but he is not sure when.
