Four local residents are safe and sound today thanks to the quick actions of an Estevan Police Service officer.
Const. Steven Enns is credited with saving the four people from a house fire in the early morning hours on Friday. Enns was patrolling a back alley on the 1200 block of Sixth Street when he noticed a fire at the rear of a house. He was able to wake the occupants and help them flee the home with no injuries.
"He saved our lives," said the owner of the home Warren Sukich. "You can't speculate (on what might have happened) but chances are five, six minutes later how much more smoke would have been in there, could have we been overcome by it, I don't know."
Although he is still piecing the events together in his mind, Sukich estimates that the fire began around 3 a.m. His girlfriend was awoken by the barking of their dogs who were reacting to Enns knocking on the door.
"He was banging repeatedly on the door and he wasn't getting any response and was about to kick it in. (His girlfriend) got out of bed, woke me up and ran to the door to let the officer in.
"He asked who was in the house and she said our kid was upstairs, he's two, and he immediately ran upstairs, grabbed him, woke up my friend from upstairs and then ran outside."
Sukich said by the time he got out of the house, the flames had already begun to reach the roof. As well, since the fire appears to have began on the back of the house the alarms did not go off.
"If he was 10 to 15 minutes later, who's to say what would have happened?"
Sukich said the damage to the home is extensive and is waiting to hear from his insurance company if it will be a total loss.
"It's pretty bad. When you look inside, it's pretty depressing," he said. "The firemen said it was an electrical fire from an outlet box that started inside the wall. That particular breaker on the panel was tripped and that is where the fire started. It started inside the back wall there and proceeded up inside the wall and onto the roof."
Sukich said that although the fire is a bit of "a pain in the ass" everything they lost can be replaced and all involved are safe, something he credits Enns for.
"He's a hell of a guy."
