WELLANDFamilies lose everything; fire on friday leaves three families homeless
ANGUS SCOTT
Monday, November 27, 2006 - 09:00
Emergency call sent to Firefighting crews to respond.
Local News - When the smoke detector in her apartment went off Friday evening, Tara Hardy thought someone upstairs must have been cooking.
The resident of Apartment 2 at the triplex house located at 102 Maple St. in Welland said it was a regular occurrence for the detectors to sound off and the neighbours often joked about it.
What had happened, however, was far more serious.
A child's foam chair in the upstairs apartment had caught fire from a candle and gone up like a torch, said a spokesman for the Welland Fire Department.
Hardy called up the stairs to ask if her neighbour was cooking, prompting the neighbour to check the living room, where she found the fire already well underway.
"I ran back into my apartment, called 911 and got my kids out of there," said Hardy.
Her husband Bob Alkerton was at work at the time of the fire.
On her way out of the building, Hardy notified her neighbour, Jane Blanchard, who lived on the ground floor of the need to get out of the house, thus saving her life.
The result of the fire is all three families are homeless, with nothing left but the clothes they were wearing at the time of their escape.
Welland fire department platoon chief Peter Santone said the call came in at 7:33 p.m. on Friday, Nov 24. Firefighters were at the scene until 1:15 a.m. Saturday morning, extinguishing the blaze.
Fire trucks went back to the house several times on Saturday to ensure no hot spots remained, he said.
The Friday night fire drew a five-truck response, said Santone. The third floor collapsed onto the second at about 10 p.m., said Santone.
"It was fully involved when firefighters arrived," he said. "Flames were coming out the front window."
Nobody was injured in the fire, which caused estimated damages of $120,000, said Santone.
"They did the best they could to save stuff," said Santone, but the contents of the house were largely destroyed.
"As soon as I got out of the building I went to the front yard and saw the front window explode, and flames shooting out," said Hardy. A mother of two children, she just started a new job at Liquidation World last week. She lost everything in the fire and has no insurance.
"I can't close my eyes without seeing that fire," she said.
Blanchard, the ground floor resident, also finds herself in a desperate situation.
While she feels lucky to be alive, she too has lost everything.
"I'm in a state of shock still," she said the afternoon following the fire. "We got home and I don't think we were in more than five minutes," before the smell of burnt paper hit her.
Blanchard also heard a smoke alarm go off and thought it was from cooking. Hardy came banging on the door shortly afterwards.
"When I got out the upper floors were engulfed," said Blanchard, 49, who lived in the apartment with her adult son.
A neighbour who asked to remain unidentified, said firefighters had a hard time putting the fire out. "It seemed they had it out, but as soon as they took the water off, the flames were right up again," she said.
"What a shame," said the neighbour. "Three families without a home and right before Christmas."
Blanchard, who lives on a disability pension, said she doesn't know what she's going to do. She has nowhere to go and stayed Friday night at the home of her boyfriend's mother.
"I don't know whether to laugh or cry and I don't know where to turn," she said. "I can't wait a week to find an apartment and I don't have any money."
The Tribune was unable to locate the third family that was living in the home.
Donation boxes have been set up for Hardy and her family at Handlebar Hanks and the Elbow Room. Hardy is also staying at the home of her husband's mother, along with their two children.
Anyone who can offer some assistance to Blanchard is asked to call 905-788-9112.
ID- 292650
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