woman narrowly escaped her basement suite in Steinbach early Sunday morning as the house burned around her.
According to Fire Chief Kel Toews, his crews were called to a house fire at the corner of Elm Avenue and Elmdale Street in Steinbach around 1 AM on Sunday.
Chantal Delfosse, who lived in a basement suite in the home, says she went to bed around 11:30 and woke up to use the washroom shortly before 1.
“I come out of my bedroom and I see my kitchen and I could see smoke in my kitchen.” With emotion in her voice, she adds “I rushed back to my bedroom, grabbed my cell phone and I rushed to where my shoes, my purse, and my sweater was, and I started throwing it on, and I then look up my stairs and I see fire coming through my door because there's cracks, I can see fire coming through it.”
Delfosse says the basement suite has never been very safe as the windows are too small to climb out of and the stairwell is the only way in and out. She notes the smoke was so thick at the top of the stairs that she wouldn't have been able to see her hand even if it was right in front of her face.
“I couldn't find the doorknob, and so that's when I started screaming for help, because I can hear people outside, so I'm screaming for help.”
All of a sudden, Delfosse says she heard them acknowledge her screams saying “there is somebody down there,” but she notes nobody came to help.
“I couldn't find the doorknob, I went up and down three times trying to find the doorknob, but I was getting so sick, and I was so, so scared. I went back down after the third try and I said 'if I don't get it this time, I'm just going to go sit on the couch, because there's nothing else I can do.”
Finally, on the fourth try, Delfosse says she got lucky and found the doorknob and quickly unlock it.
“I managed to turn the doorknob, and it popped open, maybe about a foot. The fire just whooshed in, I can still hear people outside and they are still not doing anything. I get to the door and I'm about to try to jump through and I realized there is something in the way and so I had to kick it out of the way before I was able to run out of the house.”
Delfosse says there were six or seven people in the yard including the upstairs tenants and a former upstairs tenant. She notes she heard them yell at each other and then they quickly left the property. She says she called 911 but by the time she got off the phone with them, firetrucks were already arriving so someone else must have also called.
Fire Chief Kel Toews says he would be surprised if the house can be salvaged
Steinbach Fire Chief Kel Toews says the house was fully engulfed in flames when they arrived, and it took his crew about a half hour to get the fire under control. He notes they then did a bit of an overhaul to ensure the fire was out.
Toews adds, while fighting the fire, they discovered there was still a dog inside the upstairs apartment and fortunately, they were able to save it.
He says he would be surprised if the house can be salvaged. Just as with all house fires, he adds a small group of firefighters stayed at the house all night long while they waited for the Office of the Fire Commissioner to arrive.
Fortunately, Delfosse says she was taken to hospital and was treated for smoke inhalation but somehow, she notes she didn’t have a single burn. She was let out of the hospital at 10 AM Sunday, went back to the house to be picked up by a friend, and says a fire official found her there and told her he was surprised she was able to make it out alive.
Delfosse says she is staying with a friend at the moment, but she lost everything in the fire and didn’t have tenant’s insurance.
“I didn't because it was considered, I don't know what it's technically called, but like an illegal apartment, so I didn't even think I could because I didn't have a lease. I had no insurance.”
Gisele Scarpino is Delfosse’s aunt. She says her son set up a GoFundMe page for Chantal as a way to help her get back on her feet.
“She lived in really horrible conditions, but had no choice. She was working from home and lost her computer and everything.”
Scarpino adds “People are starting to offer things like, 'oh, I've got an old dresser and so forth'. She can't really accept it now because there's no place to put it so right now, she's just accepting clothes, and the GoFundMe page will be for to get herself a new computer.”
The funds raised are also being designated for a damage deposit for her next apartment and a few other necessities.
Delfosse says this support means the world.
“It's so overwhelming. I love all these people and I'm very, very, very lucky to have people who are there for me. I don't know what I would have done without everybody, they've been just so kind and supportive.”
Fire Chief Kel Toews says the cause of the fire is still under investigation by the Office of the Fire Commissioner.