By Marcia Love
The Maple Creek Fire Department rushed to battle a blaze at a residence on Walsh Street on Aug. 8.
Smoke filled the air as firefighters quickly contained the flames to the house at 204 Walsh Street, where the fire broke out just before 7:30 p.m.

The fire crew cut holes in the roof and walls of the house to extinguish the flames. The blaze was under control in about an hour, but firefighters remained at the scene until about 9:30 p.m.
At about 12:30 a.m. neighbours noticed the fire had picked up again in a portion of the front porch. The fire department returned to the scene for two hours to hose down the area.
Melissa Ross, who was renting the house, was home at the time of the fire and escaped out the back door with her eight-year-old son, Kaiden.
“My son came running (into the bedroom) and said there was a fire and we had to get out,” Ross explained. “So I ran into the living room and saw flames and smoke in the front porch.”
The two ran to the back of the house, where they had difficulty opening the back door.
“It was really scary, because we couldn’t get the door open and all the windows didn’t open and we were trapped,” Ross recalled. “The doorknob was kind of broken and I didn’t think (the door) was going to open, but we finally got it open and got out and then... we went to the neighbours’.”
In a few days, Ross and her son were hoping to be moved out of the house as a leak in the porch roof had caused mould issues. Ross said her landlord was condemning the house due to it’s declining state.
“I was moving this weekend,” said Ross, who was packing when the fire broke out.
She and her son were moving to a two-bedroom suite in the basement of a friend’s house on Harder Street.
“My friend was supposed to come after work and help us move some stuff,” Ross explained. “We didn’t get anything moved.”
Her home was also being used to store some of her mother’s belongings. Ross’ mother, Myrna Sammy, lost her home at Willowbend Trailer Court during the flood.
“Everything that we saved from the trailer was in the front porch – all the crystal and anything that was salvageable,” Ross said. “We’ve both lost everything now – what little we did have. I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
Fire Chief Keith Stork said the house was gutted, as the fire completely consumed the interior.
The cause of the fire is believed to be electrical.
“We suspect it was an electrical problem caused by an overloaded circuit in the front room,” Stork said.

A firefighter hoses down the roof and walls of a smouldering house on Walsh Street which caught fire in the evening on August 8.                  Photo by Marcia Love