Fatal fire in Regina accidental but ‘preventable’
REGINA — Kelly Milliken awoke to the sound of sirens and the horrifying sight of her neighbours being pulled from a deadly house fire on Friday night.
Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she looked across the street and saw the house on the corner of Montreal Street and 12th Avenue engulfed in flames.
The intensity and proximity of the blaze in the city’s core neighbourhood frightened her.
“It was so close. I didn’t know if I should grab my parrot and get out,” she said Saturday morning. “When we got up, the back of the house was just full of flames already. They were trying to get that taken care of and then, all of a sudden, it started to move to the front and to the roof.
“The house is so old, it burned quickly.”
She didn’t know her neighbours by name, but every day they exchanged friendly greetings. Sitting on her back step in the early morning sunlight, Millik- en glumly recalled Friday night’s pain and chaos.
“The cops were trying to get this guy to leave and he kept saying, ‘No. My friend, my friend is in there.’ It was so sad,” she said.
Regina firefighters were called to a “fully involved structure fire” on the 1900 block of Montreal Street on Friday at 10:14 p.m., said Albert Headrick, fire marshal with Regina Fire and Protective Services.
“The call came in from neighbours and people who were walking by,” he said Saturday.
“The first unit arrived within four minutes and 11 seconds.”
Seven people were in the home when the fire broke out, he said.
Two individuals died as a result of their injuries. Three survivors of the blaze were treated for smoke inhalation at hospital and two people were treated at the scene by EMS.
Details about the identi- ties of the deceased and the conditions of the remaining victims have not been released.
The fire quickly jumped to 1903 Montreal St.; however, fire crews were able to get it under control and limit the damage. It’s unclear how many occupants were in that home at the time of the fire.
In the basement of her home a block away, Linda Getz was doing laundry when the fire broke out.
“I’d just come upstairs and I glanced out the window and I saw flames coming through all of the windows,” she said. “I had just put my grandchildren to bed so of course I got them out of bed because I didn’t know what was happening.”
In horror, she and her husband watched as ambulances pulled up to the burning building and firefighters fought the blaze.
“It was quite devastating and scary,” Getz said.
On Saturday morning, the acrid smell of smoke drifted through the quiet neighbourhood.
Yellow tape cordoned off the small white brick house. Plywood covered the charred openings where windows had been. The ice-covered sidewalks and roads were testament to the deluge of water that had been pumped on the raging inferno the night before.
“I saw two of the residents here about 8:30 (Saturday) morning and they stood and just looked at the house,” Milliken said. “They don’t have much, but they lost everything and their friends.”
By Saturday afternoon, fire and police investigators had completed their investigation. They concluded the fire was accidental, but preventable.
“The origin of the fire was on the main level of the house, just off the living room,” Headrick said. “The cause can be attributed to the use of lighting material and flammable materials. This is a tragic event that was preventable.”
There were hardwired smoke alarms in the 1901 Montreal St. home.
“The estimated damage to the home at 1901 Montreal St., was $170,000 and the second home had about $60,000 in damage,” Headrick said.