Three La Broquerie residents and their dog are alive right now because their neighbor rescued them from a house fire.

At around noon, La Broquerie Firefighters and Steinbach RCMP were dispatched to an attic fire at a residence in between La Broquerie and Marchand. When crews arrived they found the home was fully involved.

“We had to rip most of the roof off to make sure that it didn’t spread,” comments Deputy Fire Chief JC Normandeau.

w that the house was on fire.”

Thanks to the timeliness of the rescue, Belmore says the residents escaped unscathed.

“Everybody is out of the house and everybody is fine so that is huge.”

Belmore gives his assessment of the overall situation: “What appears to have happened is that the chimney caught fire and the fire rolled along the rooftop. I think the house is actually in pretty good shape, it will just have a lot of smoke damage.”

Because the major marring is contained to the roof, Belmore believes many of the belongings inside the home will be preserved. Still, he stresses, the Office of The Fire Commissioner will be doing a more thorough investigation to find out exactly what happened. However extensive the damage ends up being, Belmore feels it is, in many ways, a positive story,

“You can replace property, but you can’t replace life," he comments, “so good job Paul!”

Firefighters were able to get the blaze under control within the hour but remained nearby monitoring it for most of the afternoon.