It was a close call for Dorothy resident Larry Smith. He escaped his house after a neighbour rushed over to warn him that the roof was on fire.
Residents of Dorothy were engulfed in a haze of smoke from the blaze, which started at approximately 4:40 p.m. on Wednesday, February 22.
The home, on the western outskirts of Dorothy, was being rented by Smith.
Smith had been relaxing inside his home, when he heard a knock at the door. His neighbours, having seen the fire from their homes had come to see if Smith was alright and to pull him out of danger.
“I was worried, because his vehicles were home. If he was inside he would’ve come and got us,” said Christina Pugh, one of the neighbours who went to rescue Smith. “I didn’t know if he was sleeping or what was happening.”
Thanks to the intervention of his neighbours Smith escaped unharmed, though he had to stand outside and watch his home burn wearing only a tee-shirt and shorts in the chilly February air.
The fire had started on the roof, but soon spread to the main floor and engulfed the yard and fence adjacent to the house.
The Homestead Fire Department arrived quickly on the scene and began working immediately to put out the fire. Soon after, they were joined by members of the Hanna and Drumheller Departments.
Crews quickly extinguished the fires around the yard, but the old wooden shingles on the roof proved to be stubborn, with areas flaring up occasionally.
Crews eventually returned to their departments late in the evening.
Smith has a couple of ideas as to what may have started the fire.
“I have a wood stove and had it on. With the wooden shingles, I guess a spark landed on them,” hypothesized Smith. “Or maybe it was an electrical short.”
With the dry weather and the inherent dangers of wooden shingles, a tiny spark may have been all it would have taken to start the fire.
Smith did manage to remove a few valuables from the house.
“I got most of my stuff out of there, I didn’t have that much in there,” said Smith. The remaining items are now a write off.
The cause of the blaze may be uncertain, but what is certain is that were it not for the caring nature of Smith’s neighbours, the day may have had a far more tragic end.
