Breaking the news

Rachelle Daniel, a seasoned firefighter of eight years, was handed the grim task of telling one of her closest friends that they no longer had a home to return to.

In front of her was an “unbelievable” scene of four houses, side by side, all shrouded in flames so high they reached past the tops of trees behind them.

Flanked by infernos on either side, in the middle, was Scott Germain’s home.

“It was like being in hell,” said 31-year-old Daniel, who is based south of Fort McMurray. Ap- proaching the destruction, the fire’s heat hit her as if she had just opened an oven door.

“You want to try to do everything you can to save their house or at least something in there but at the same time, you knew it was fully involved,” she said.

The team made the decision to suppress the fire’s reach in order to protect the area’s remaining homes.

Tasked with operating the pumper, Mel Angelstad asked Scott’s twin, Jamie, twice to call his brother and let him know his house was gone.

But seeing that his best friend was still stunned in disbelief over what had happened, Angelstad turned to Daniel, his girlfriend, to call Scott’s wife, Michelle Germain, and break the bad news to her instead.

“I could honestly say I didn’t want to but that it had to be done,” Daniel said. Michelle, a 911 dispatcher, is a person she knows well.

The phone rang. Michelle, who was at work, picked up.

“I told her we are on Blackburn Drive and we just came up to your house and it’s on fire,” Daniel said, hearing a soft “uh-huh” on the other end of the line.

“We are trying everything we can, it is fully involved but I have Mel and Jamie and a bunch of other guys and we are going to do everything we can to put your house out.”

Michelle, reduced to tears, thanked her for calling. “I said I love you and talk to you soon,” Daniel said, ending the call shortly after.

More than a week later, she’s still able to recite the conversation word for word.