-Neighbours help provide shelter, clothes for couple-

OSOYOOS TIMES-February 25, 2009-

By Paul EverestrnOsoyoos Times

It was nearly midnight on Feb. 16 and Dave West was making a cup of coffee in the kitchen of his house at 14 Lambert Court when he first noticed something wrong.
I smelled the smell of burning plastic, he said, adding that at first he thought the smell was coming from the stove.
West asked his partner, Paula Weisenberger, who was still awake in the living room, if she could smell it too before he went outside and saw flames at the back of the two-storey house.
When I finally did come down (to the back), holy moly, he said.
At the same time, a window had broken from the heat and thick smoke was filling the upper level, forcing Weisenberger to find her way out of the house in throat-choking darkness.
Paula just barely made it out, West said.
The blaze started beneath a deck at the rear of the house and a blowing north wind fanned it until the entire back of the home was engulfed.
Aluminum siding on either side of the home hung like curtains the day after the fire, melted as the wind had pushed the flames around the house's rear corners, and a pickup truck parked close to the deck was heavily damaged.
Neighbours throughout the area said they saw fireballs bursting into the night air after a snow blower and generator under the deck, each with a half tank of gasoline, exploded.
Although there were no major injuries, West ended up with a singed forehead when he tried to fight the fire as best as he could by turning on a water faucet on one side of the house.
People living on either side of West's house started calling 911 once they saw the flames and heard the explosions.
The first members of the Osoyoos Volunteer Fire Department arrived at the scene at 12:02 a.m. and before long 27 fire fighters were battling the blaze, which ultimately gutted the home but did not damage neighbouring houses.
The guys did a great job, West said. They made sure the fire didn't spread.rnDepartment captain Roger Borges said the house was fully engulfed when fire fighters arrived.
He said it's likely the fire started due to the self-combustion of flammable materials such as paint being stored under the deck.
Although the blaze was completely knocked down by roughly 3:30 a.m., Borges said, department members had to return at about 4:30 a.m. to put out some start-up fires.rnSeveral neighbours said, however, that although one truck arrived right away when the fire first broke out, they could see a fire truck with its lights and siren activated on another street a few blocks away.
Sandy Beaton, who lives across the street from West, was one of the first people to call 911 and when the truck was spotted on another street, she called 911 again.
I said 'Where are you?'rnBorges said one of the first units to respond did end up heading down another street behind the cul-de-sac as it appeared the smoke was coming from a location behind Lambert Court.
But it quickly made its way to the burning house after it was realized where the fire was, he added.
West, a former Osoyoos town councillor, said he has owned the house since the early 1990s and it is uninsured.
He and Weisenberger are staying at a neighbour's house for now until they figure out what to do next.
West said his first priority is bringing in some heavy equipment to knock the burnt remnants of the house down.
In the meantime, neighbours have stepped up to help out.
Mary Feist, the sister of one of West's neighbours, just happened to be bringing some old clothes to her sister's house at the time of the blaze and she offered West and Weisenberger all of the items since the couple lost all of their possessions.
They only got out with the clothes on their backs, she said.
Feist said she and other neighbours were also rounding up some furniture for the couple.
The neighbours have actually been wonderful in offering help, West said, adding that it isn't until everything is gone that you learn what's really necessary.
The things that you actually need is a change of socks and a razor. [email protected]