ESTEVAN - A local family is dealing with the aftermath of a serious house fire that occurred on Remembrance Day, consuming the entire basement and leaving the rest of their property badly damaged.
The Makaruks have moved into a rented apartment after staying in a local hotel this past weekend, as their house wasn't suitable to live in after the fire, and they are currently trying to get back on track. Hanna Frolova spoke to Mercury about the accident.
"Everything happened really fast," she said. "Maybe half an hour it took for that fire to burst into a blaze."
Thursday morning, Frolova took their two sons, Stanislav and Arthur Makaruk, to hockey, and returned home to spend some time with the youngest, Edward Makaruk. Her husband Vitaliy Makaruk was gone hunting since early in the morning. She was in the kitchen on her phone, her son was playing inside, a dog slept nearby and a cat was somewhere in the house when she caught a slight smell.
"I first thought it was my phone. I have an old phone, so I thought it was done. It was a slight smell of melted plastic," Frolova recalled. "But the phone didn't smell. There was no smoke smell or fire on the main floor at all."
Frolova went downstairs to check the basement. She came to the teenager's room and instantly she knew something was going on in there.
"The door to his room has glass in it, and you usually can see the light through it, because there is a window right across. But I couldn't see anything. The room was black, but there was no fire or smoke coming out of it," Frolova said.
The door was locked, and Frolova immediately called her son to check if he knew what could be burning. He didn't, so she told them to stay at the hockey rink. Then she dialled her husband to let him know there was a fire in the house. Shocked, she couldn't remember the fire station number and wasn't sure where to call, so she dialled the Estevan police, whose number was saved in her cell, and asked them to get some help out.
"I knew that it was bad, and I had to get out of the house. The smoke started getting into the main level. When I turned towards it, it burned my face and upper airway. The smoke was very sharp … I told the son to run outside. He got out barefoot. I grabbed his shoes, the dog ran outside too. And I realize that I can't find the cat, because there is too much smoke upstairs, and I can't risk it. I couldn't see anything. My purse with everything was probably within arm’s reach, but I couldn't see it," Frolova shared.
She ran outside, counting the moments before the first responders' arrival, and hoping for a miracle.
Later, when the fire was finally extinguished and the family was allowed to go back into the house, they found that the fire consumed or melted appliances, electronics, clothes, bedding, carpet, construction materials and furniture, and the plastic in all of those was probably what resulted in that heavy sharp smoke.
Police, Emergency Medical Services and firefighters arrived at the scene, and Vitaliy, who was heading back when the fire started, made it to the scene at about the same time.
"There was extensive damage that was caused to the home. Crews were able to make an aggressive push into the house and keep the majority of the fire damage to the room of origin in the basement suite area," said Estevan Fire Chief Dale Feser. "There was a lot of smoke damage as well as heat damage to the remainder of the home."
The family cat didn't make it out of the fire. Firefighters spent over three hours battling the fire but eventually, they were able to successfully suppress and extinguish the fire without any damage to any adjoining residences, Feser said.
"They were trying to put the fire out for a long time, and I knew it was bad news … The fire downstairs must have been really bad," Frolova said.
The insurance company started an investigation of the cause of the fire. Feser said firefighters on their behalf were looking at some electrical items that were plugged in the outlets in that bedroom.
Frolova noted that it seems that it might have been a charging cord plugged into a lamp, sitting on a chair. While there was nothing plugged into it, she was later told that even just being plugged, it may overheat as it's still working.
"Just a gentle reminder that when you're looking at electrical components, you want to make sure that you're not overloading any circuits. You don't want to plug in power bars into power bars or into extension cords. You don't want to use any extension cords, or any phone charging cables, that are showing signs of damage, because those are all fairly good ignition sources, especially if it's around some fairly easy combustible items."
Feser thanked all first responders involved with the residential fire as well as some locals that stepped in to help. Frolova said neighbours brought in some hot beverages and doughnuts, family friends picked up the kids, and many other people were helping them out as much as possible.
She thanked their neighbours Roger and Donna, who took care of the younger kid while they were dealing with the fire. Other neighbours took their dog, family friends picked up the other two kids from hockey, and another family brought a jacket and shoes for the boys.
Frolova said they were surprised and fascinated with the outpouring support they received from people of Estevan and further, some of whom they barely know. They thanked Estevan Police Service, firefighters and everyone involved with their situation.
"We are so grateful for so many good people, for any support including moral," Frolova said. "We thanked many people personally, but there were so many people involved that we didn't get to all of them yet. We are very grateful to all of our friends, acquaintances, and people we don't know that responded so fast. We didn't expect such support, we couldn't even have hoped for it, because we understand that everyone is having difficult times now," Frolova said.
The Red Cross placed the family in the Days Inn for a few days and provided them with some help. The hotel eventually helped the family get an apartment for rent, which they are also grateful for.
"It's difficult to quickly find accommodation. More so that we have a dog, and there are five of us," said Frolova.
When it was safe to do so, the family was allowed to come into the house.
"It was very scary," Frolova said.
The newly renovated basement was largely gone, and the main floor, while not destroyed by fire, was badly damaged by smoke and heat. The family made Estevan their home 10 years ago. They purchased the house in 2013 and since have been renovating it a little bit at a time themselves.
Frolova works from home, and her work equipment was also damaged. They tried recovering some of their belongings, clothes and groceries, but everything was saturated with smoke and was unusable.
Realizing how difficult the situation is, their friend Irina Vlezko started a GoFundMe campaign for the Makaruks family on the day of the fire. While the Makaruks hope the insurance company will be able to help them promptly, they still need to buy all the necessities and keep going while the situation settles.
As of Tuesday morning, the campaign had raised $2,850 of its $30,000 goal, with 32 donations.
You can visit GoFundMe page to help the family.
Frolova said they are grateful for the help, and she also pointed out that maybe their story will make people more aware of the danger charging cords may carry.
