A barking dog saved the lives of 15 people in the central Alberta community of Blackfalds early Wednesday morning, as a six unit townhouse complex went up in flames.
The fire started on a deck at around 2:30 a.m. A resident woke up to the sound of his dog barking in the back yard.
“Oh, I tell you, that would have been the end… my brother-in-law, my sister, my niece would have been dead. I probably would have been dead,” resident Justin Zieverink said.
Zieverink woke up everyone else in the home, but before they could even get their shoes on a barbecue propane tank exploded.
“As soon as that propane tank went, whoosh,” Zieverink described. They ran outside and started banging on the other units’ doors to wake their neighbours as the fire quickly spread, setting off other propane tanks.
“The one neighbour there, where the fire started, come banging on our doors, telling us, ‘get out, we’re on fire,'” said neighbour Wyatt Dixon.
“There’s six houses here, all families, couple families and young kids live in here,” Zieverink said.
All six units at 4996 Westbrooke Road were extensively damaged. The inferno was so hot, it melted garbage and recycling bins about 20 feet away. The plastic grill on the front of a car and back window of a truck also melted.
All 15 residents of the six homes, including their pets, managed to escape safely.
“We were all dead asleep. We’re all lucky to get out. If it wasn’t for that dog barking,” said Dixon.
“Thank God for that dog, that’s all I can say. Good dog,” echoed owner Zieverink.
There was concern over a missing cat, however firefighters found it a few hours later in the basement. The cat was in a laundry basket, floating in a few feet of water.
Thankfully all of the tenants have insurance.
Fire crews from both Blackfalds and Lacombe were called to the scene. Investigators do not believe the fire was suspicious, but the cause remains under investigation.
Blackfalds is located about 14 kilometres north of Red Deer.
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