After a busy work week, Saturdays tend to be the day to set aside for home repair and renovations. Anyone who does projects at home can attest that unexpected problems are liable to appear through the process, but for Jason Vanstone, it was more than he bargained for. One minute he was working on the house, and the next it was in flames.
A saw-horse and high winds
It began with a routine project of installing new flooring.
“I had been trying to quickly finish up new flooring in my bathroom and my granddaughter and I were getting ready to go fishing the next morning,” says Vanstone. “My saw-horse was set up outside my garage, [and I was] doing some normal stuff, like cutting the laminate flooring and trying to [reuse] some of the trim that I had.”
The normally innocuous combination of cutting laminate and high winds resulted in a night that Vanstone could not have anticipated and will not soon forget.
“Apparently from a nail or from the saw-horse itself, a spark [was] created and in those heavy winds got into some pine needles. I had two lawn chairs set out and they started on fire first,” he says. “I was inside and came out, and [the fire] was on the lawn chairs and kind of getting onto the door of the garage. I went back inside and hollered at my wife to call 911 and get my granddaughter out.”
Aflame in an instant
While Vanstone’s wife and daughter were rushing to safety and calling emergency services, Vanstone retrieved the fire extinguisher with the intention of beginning the fight himself.
The fire spread much too quickly for this to be an option.
“In that short period of time, I grabbed the fire extinguisher, turned around, went back out to the garage, and the whole garage was involved, so the fire extinguisher was not doing it,” he says. “With the winds, it managed to [catch] my camper on fire, and then unfortunately caught our neighbours’ [house] on fire, too.”
Before long, Miami Fire responded to the call along with Roland Fire and Carman-Dufferin Fire. Two local farmers also brought water trucks to assist, and Miami Variety brought food and beverages to keep everyone sustained.
Fortunately, everyone exited the structures safely, and there were no injuries. The Vanstones’ fire plan was partly to thank for this. While there was significant damage to the garage, the camper, and the neighbouring house, the homes were not a complete loss.
“The fire departments did an outstanding job,” says Vanstone. “The investigators from my company and the investigators from the neighbouring property said they had the environmental data, and it was gusting up over 90 kilometres an hour and they were amazed that they saved what they did.”
Delayed emotion
Vanstone, who recently retired after working with the Miami Fire Department for 25 years, says he eventually went to his sister’s house nearby while the firefighters tended to his home. Before that, as he watched the garage in flames, he couldn’t decipher what he felt.
“Quite honestly, watching it, I was just kind of numb — just no real emotion or anything,” he says. “[My] family was all safe, the neighbours’ family was all safe, and their pets were safe. [I] just kind of sat there, I wouldn't say in amazement, but just emotionally numb watching it happen.”
Vanstone said that in the coming days, emotions began to crop up in unexpected moments, such as when he was at the pet store replacing supplies.
“I kind of had a moment in there. Staff were good and just let me work through that,” he says. “I think . . . even coming up to ten days later, it’s still emotionally traumatizing.”
Vanstone says that for the other occupants of the house, the exit was a source of a host of emotions due to its intensity.
"My wife and granddaughter had a hard time because the garage was on fire and the smoke and flames [were] swirling around back in the backyard where they exited from. They got some smoke and no burns, but lots of heat,” he says.
Vanstone’s granddaughter, 10, is especially affected.
“She’s doing pretty good, [but] she is still crying out during the night. She normally talks in her sleep, but not to [this extent],” he says. “She's talking about the fire and everything, so we've got her lined up with a bit of therapy for that.”
Although there are some bumps along the road, Vanstone says that his granddaughter is relieved that her pets are alive. She has two dogs and a cat. The community at school has also been a source of comfort.
“The teachers out of the Miami school are making her lunches and everything, which takes a little bit of the load off us,” says Vanstone. “Local community support as far as clothing and everything like that has been incredible, so she's doing pretty good.”
Related stories:
The aftermath
In addition to coming to terms with the fire, the Vanstones must now grapple with the fact that they are without a home for the foreseeable future — in one night, their entire life was uprooted.
“It's day-to-day living here in the hotel,” he says. “We're trying to get an air fryer in here, so at least we can buy some of our own food and not eat restaurant food. Not that the restaurants aren't great in Winkler.”
Fortunately, the house can be rebuilt, but it will take time.
“We've actually got a meeting this afternoon with the insurance company. It sounds like they're going to gut everything back to the studs and start again,” says Vanstone. “We probably won't be back in our house until mid-summer.”
Vanstone says that the family had insurance for everything except the camper. He has a message for the community in this respect.
“Go check your MPI and make sure you have all your trailers and [everything] registered. That was just an oversight of mine. I thought it had been done and it hadn't,” he says. “Try and get house insurance. Our insurance company so far has been awesome to deal with. They've been doing everything they can . . . . Make sure you've got the insurance in place.”
What is salvageable?
A part of the process with the insurance company is to determine what can be saved in the house. As it stands, the Vanstones’ irreplaceable possessions hang in the balance.
“My wife is an artist, and they're hoping to save her prints that are on the walls. [There are also] some old family photos — it's not that they're burnt or anything, but the heavy smoke smell is the problem in the whole house,” says Vanstone. “We're . . . not completely sure what we're going to keep and what we're going to lose . . . . Family heirlooms [are] still in the house to be determined. So that's kind of where we're sitting right now.”
The immediate concern for the family is to find somewhere to live until the house is ready. Unfortunately, the housing scarcity in the region is a large hurdle.
“The insurance company has hired a private real estate management company here in Winkler,” says Vanstone. “The only thing they could find for us was a bed and breakfast in Altona. Other than that, there is zero vacancy for houses or apartments.”
The bed and breakfast was not a viable option for the family because their granddaughter attends school in Miami. To save the long drive back and forth, for now, the Vanstones are making the best of their situation at the hotel.
“There are possibly maybe one or two properties coming up in the new year, but right now we're pretty much talking to the whole hotel staff and introducing ourselves. We'll be seeing [them] until the end of Christmas time.”
Despite a less-than-ideal living situation, the Vanstones are in good spirits. Much of it has to do with the support of the community, especially Miami.
“I was reeve for six years [in Miami] and I was thoroughly appreciative to be able to represent that community. It is awesome,” says Vanstone.
Anyone who would like to support the Vanstones as they move forward is invited to their GoFundMe page.
~With files from Robyn Wiebe~