Branconier building burns

Details

Published on Monday, June 5, 2017

By Sheila Runions

The Rivers Banner

On Wednesday, May 24 at 2:20 p.m. Rivers/Daly Fire Department responded to a 911 call and raced to the home of Sean and Rebekah Branconier in Rivers. The family (children Nathan, Michael and Teyah) live on Hwy. 250 in Rivers’ north end — the second home from the north on the west side of the road; their official address is SE 26-12-21. Members were required to extinguish a shed fire, which was completely destroyed, as were its contents and more.

Fire Chief Richard Brown says his team, “responded with all four apparatus: engine 1, snuffer, rescue and tanker; EMS and RCMP were also dispatched. When we arrived on scene the shed was fully engulfed, as well as the fence that was close by.”

Also burning/burnt was a wood pile stacked near the shed and surrounding trees. Heat from all those flames was so intense it melted some vinyl siding on the house; thankfully, there were no human injuries.

“We attacked the shed quickly and extinguished the fence and tree fire as well, with foam. Eight members responded; none were harmed while fighting the fire or from the downed line. There are two hydro lines that run through the neighbour’s property as well the Branconier residence. It wasn't until the neighbour called me over to say his power was knocked out and that the line was down [that firefighters were aware of that danger]. The line was down between the fence, tall grass and railroad ties, which made it hard for us to notice. I got 911 to notify hydro and they were on scene quick — they were working south of town.”

A tree blowing into the hydro line on that extremely windy day created a spark, which fell on the shed which caused the chain reaction that included breaking the hydro line. The fire department remained on scene for nearly an hour; hydro vacated around 4:30 p.m. after they had repaired the line and trimmed some of trees interfering with the same.

Branconiers have insurance coverage so are completing the process to reside the home and replace the shed/contents.

“The shed was an eight-by-eight garden shed that contained three bikes, our push lawnmower, chain saws, weed eater, fertilizers, gas cans, various garden tools and a picnic table,” says Rebekah. “We are currently in contact with our insurance company to clean up the debris, cut the trees that were burned and fix the fence so we will be able to have a new shed in place ASAP. 

“Sean and I were both at work at the time and were thankful that Mark Miskulin [neighbour to the south] and others who saw the fire in passing, called the department and that Bruce Cudmore [neighbour to the north] was home to move Sean’s quad. We really want to thank the fire department for arriving at our house so quickly and efficiently putting out the fire before additional damage was done to our home. Without this service in our town, our house likely would have had extended damage, due to the crazy wind and heat from the fire. A big thank you to everyone who alerted the fire department in some way.”