Cape Breton mother, three children displaced by early morning fire

GLACE BAY — A mother and her three children are “very lucky” to have escaped an early morning fire according to Fire Chief John Chant of the Glace Bay Volunteer Fire Department.

The department was called to the scene of at 1:3 8a.m. Sunday morning and found the fire to be deep in the walls of the duplex on Winona Street. Chant said they also found no working smoke detectors in the house.

“They were lucky, very lucky . . .This could have turned out much differently,” Chant told the Post during a phone interview.

The mother and her children, between the ages of two and nine, were displaced by the fire. They were renting one side of the duplex and got out safely. The other side was unoccupied, according to a press release from the Red Cross of Canada, which is providing the family with emergency accommodations, winter clothing, food, toys and other basic living necessities.

Chant said the fire was accidental and was caused by a furnace problem.

Firefighters spent two hours fighting the fire, mostly trying to get to it by cutting through walls and digging under the foundation through a small crawl space. Chant said once they got to the fire it was put out quickly.

Extreme cold temperatures of around -28 C caused some issues for the fire department. The air brakes on one of the standby firetrucks (not being used to pump water) stopped working and a CBRM emergency vehicle repair crew was called in.

There were also some issues with equipment and crew safety.

“As soon as we put out the water (from the hoses), it was freezing,” said Chant. “The water was frozen in our hoses. We had to take them back on the back of our trucks and lay them out in the station until they thawed so we could put them away.”

Because of the cold, Chant said they had to switch fire crews more frequently to keep them warm and protect them from frost bite.

Chant said it took in total about two hours to extinguish the fire and they left the scene around 2:40 a.m.

He also urged people to make sure they have working smoke detectors in the home.

“People think the batteries last forever. They don’t. Make sure you have working smoke detectors in your home.”