Fire Devastates Couple;Trust Fund Set Up

Written by Peter McIntyre Wednesday, 10 March 2010 12:06

There's still no word on a cause for this morning's fire in the Bella Vista area.

Deputy fire chief Rick Owens says the call came in just after 4am at 4909 27th Avenue ..and they found the front porch on the home fully ablaze.

"The majority of the damage is probably in the kitchen area although there's smoke damage throughout the building. When they got there, they got a good knock down on it, so there's a bit of damage where it reached the attic."

He says it appears to have started on or near the front porch.

Owens says the two occupants got out safely, but they did lose a couple of pet birds.

He says the house  is one of two old brick homes that were  moved there from 32nd Street in 1968.

Owens says the brick likely was part of the reason the fire didn't do more damage.

Pat Weston lives next door to the fire scene.

She tells KISS FM,  the occupants Larry and Sue Steele, lost all of their belongings, and did not have content insurance.

"It was pretty bad. I was woken up at 4 o clock with Larry screaming, 'Oh my God, the house is on fire. It's on fire',  and when I looked out, less than 20 feet away from me, the flames were all over the place. He managed to move his two vehicles out, the second one caught fire. I moved mine out, it was close. They sprayed my roof and happily it did not catch fire, but it was really close"

Weston says Larry Steele had to rescue his wife who just had surgery last week, out of a side window.

Weston has set up a trust fund in the name of the Steele's and donations can be made at any of the three Vantage One locations in downtown Vernon, at Landing Plaza and in Armstrong.

The couple are being put up in a local hotel for a few days under the emergency services program.