QUADEVILLE – Two-year-old Phoenix Kuiack was visiting his grandmother in Quadeville on May 6 when he noticed something out of the ordinary outside the living room window.
He grabbed Linda Hamilton’s hand and pointed to the plume of white smoke across the road. Hamilton and her daughter, Lynette Kuiack (Phoenix’s mom), rushed outside to see what was causing the fire.
“We were calling out to make sure there was no one there. We didn’t know if it was a controlled burn or not,” Lynette recalled. “I turned around and grabbed Phoenix when I realized it wasn’t controlled.”
She could see visible flames were travelling along the ground, burning up trees, foliage and dry leaves.
By the time the two made it back to the house and called 911, the fire had spread to a small 20-by-24 foot building. The structure, containing a couple of ATVs, was destroyed by flames by the time the Brudenell-Lyndoch-Raglan Fire Department arrived.
“If Phoenix didn’t bring me to that window it could have been a lot worse,” Hamilton added.
The 911 call was received around 12:45 p.m. that day and fire crews arrived on scene minutes after. The incident occurred across from the Moriarty Private Cemetery on Addington Road in Quadeville.
Fire Chief Chris Voldock said 14 volunteers arrived to battle the blaze. Although a small lake could be seen from the site, fire crews could not access it due to marshy and hilly terrain. That meant water had to be shuttled from around 15 kilometres away.
Get your May 13, 2015 edition of The Valley Gazette to read the full story.