WATCH ABOVE: Man proposes to girlfriend after she loses everything in apartment fire
REGINA – Brittany Petrisor’s Sunday was a rollercoaster of emotions, as she went from losing everything in a fire, to getting engaged to the love of her life.
Petrisor was babysitting her neighbour’s three young girls in an Empress Street apartment building when she woke up to the sound of a smoke detector.
She ran to the next unit to investigate. “I turn around and look in the bathroom and the roof was on fire. So I was like girls, we need to go, the roof is on fire,” Petrisor said.
Once Petrisor and her boyfriend, Greg Blanks, got everyone out of the six-unit building safely, they called 911 and watched as their home was destroyed.
“The roof above the top apartments is all caved in, everything is done,” Petrisor said. “Clothes are pretty much all we can save… We have to start over.”
But as it turns out, all was not lost.
When firefighters arrived, Blanks, an American from Minnesota, had an urgent request.
He’d run out of the apartment with just the clothes on his back, forgetting his passport, as well as a diamond engagement ring upstairs.
He planned to propose to Petrisor for her 20th birthday over dinner Sunday, but the fire changed all of that.
Speaking to Global News, Blanks decided to pop the question in front of our camera crew, bringing a smile to Petrisor’s face for the first time all morning.
“This wasn’t as planned,” he said. “I was going to do it at dinner tonight, but since you already found out, and I have a blessing from your dad, will you, Brittany May Petrisor, marry me?”
Her response was automatic: “Yes!”
The couple, along with about a dozen other residents displaced by the fire, will be receiving help from Regina’s mobile crisis unit.
Hampers Healing Hunger is also collecting donations.
Fire details
The fire started at 6:45 Sunday morning in the attic of the apartment building, but the cause is unknown.
Fire fighters had to attack the blaze from above with the ladder, meaning 500 gallons of water were being pumped into the building every minute.
Deputy Fire Chief Gerard Kay said even units that were not damaged by the fire itself sustained serious water damage.
“The water is probably into a lot of walls right now, obviously the whole roof structure needs to be replaced so it’ll be an interesting call from the insurance standpoint, whether they totally demolish it or replace it,” Kay said.
Amanda Boychuck had just moved into the apartment and didn’t have renters insurance. She didn’t hide her frustration as she dragged sopping wet items from her basement suite.
“It really fricken sucks because I’d finally just settled. It was finally a home for me, and now it’s toast. I was able to save a skateboard and a few things, but everything is gone. It’s terrible.”
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