Citizens in Penhold have rallied to help displaced residents of a three-story apartment building that collapsed after a roaring fire broke out in the building in the late afternoon of April 10.
The blaze was first noticed shortly before 5:45 p.m. and quickly spread and engulfed Wild Rose Manor, an 18-unit apartment building located at the far southern edge of town along Hwy. 2A.
“All I seen was heavy smoke. My apartment went black,” said building resident Christina Howard, 53, who has been living alone in a second floor one-bedroom suite since November. She said the blaze started in an apartment suite directly below her.
“I opened the door and the flames were on my balcony. I ran out in the hall and set the alarms off and started banging,” she said. “I ran back in and grabbed my coat and the flames were licking at me as I was going out the door.”
Once outside, her greatest fear was that her son and his girlfriend did not make it out in time.
“I thought they were gone because the flames were right there, the whole building was gone. The whole side of the building was gone,” said Howard, who was later relieved when she discovered her son and his girlfriend did get out of the burning building in time. “The third floor collapsed first and all of a sudden it was just gone. There was nothing.
“I was really upset, just bawling and calling friends,” added Howard, who was later evacuated with other displaced citizens to the Penhold Memorial Hall. “I have lost everything. Everybody has lost everything. Some friends of ours have lost their cats.”
Jim Pendergast, the town's fire chief, said his crews arrived at the scene mere minutes after receiving the first call but it was too late to save the building.
“The fire was uncontrollable before we arrived on scene,” said Pendergast, whose crews were later joined by fire departments from Innisfail and Red Deer, along with other firefighters in the region. “The building later collapsed in on itself. All three floors collapsed down to the bottom.”
Pendergast said he believes all residents got out safely but officials at the scene were investigating unconfirmed reports that one resident may have been trapped inside.
“We are not sure yet. We have not done a count of everybody yet. We have the RCMP trying to chase everybody down right now,” said Pendergast.
He said two residents were taken to hospital with undetermined injuries from the fire.
Pendergast said the cause of the blaze has yet to be determined but he did say there were reports that an explosion was heard inside the building immediately before the fire broke out.
“There will be a lot of hard digging and a lot of hard work yet. There are a lot of hot spots in there,' said Pendergast of the challenging investigative work ahead to determine how the first started. “It will take a major investigation and we probably won't be able to get to that at best tomorrow (Friday) because the building will be too hot.”
Meanwhile, at least a dozen shaken building residents were immediately taken to the town's memorial hall. Within an hour and a half after the blaze broke out citizens throughout the community brought food, blankets, mattresses and clothes for the victims, many of whom had cats and dogs.
“It is fairly upbeat in there because the Town of Penhold has really turned out. People are bringing blankets and food and putting their names on lists and offering beds. It has been a fantastic turn out. I am very proud of the people of Penhold,' said Sharolyn Sanchez, a member of Penhold town council who was at the memorial hall to help volunteers and to comfort victims of the blaze. She said on the night of the fire it was too early to get a full count of the displaced citizens.
“We are thinking there might be some people who are staying the night here because they are completely displaced. There are people who are offering a place to stay in their homes as well,” she said. “There are new people who just moved to Penhold who lived there and I am really glad they are surrounded by all the love Penhold can give.”
