Wolseley resident who escaped fire ‘thought we were going to die’

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This article was published 25/04/2016 (3665 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With fire blocking the front and rear exits and her Maryland Avenue home filling up with smoke Saturday, wheelchair user Helen Procner wasn’t sure she’d get out alive.

“We couldn’t breathe,” the 58-year-old said from her room in St. Boniface General Hospital Monday.

She was treated for burns and is there waiting for a wheelchair and an accessible place to stay. Procner calmly recalled how vulnerable she felt and how grateful she is to the firefighters who carried her out of the burning house.

“All the windows upstairs were exploding and glass was flying down the stairs,” she said.

Procner, who has had rheumatoid arthritis since 1989, lived in the home she owns with her sister Neda for 21 years.

Helen was asleep in her bedroom on the main floor at the back of the house when she was awakened by a transformer on a utility pole that was sparking. “It sounded like firecrackers. I thought it was hit by lightning.”

She looked out and saw an orange light and realized the condo under construction next door was on fire.

“Thank God for the noise. If it was just a fire we might not have gotten out alive,” Helen said.

By then, flames had spread to the deck and wheelchair ramp at the back of the house. Her sister came down from the third floor.

“Things were flaming up… We couldn’t get to the back door. We had to go to the front but the porch was on fire,” Helen said. “We could see the firefighters and my sister was yelling and waving but they couldn’t hear her… She thought we were going to die. It was starting to seem that way.”

Neda was on the phone calling 911 while Helen got out of her wheelchair and stood with a cane but was unable to take more than a few steps. Before the sisters were overcome by the smoke, firefighters hosed down the front porch and rescued them, Helen said.

“The firefighters carried me out of the house — one grabbed under my arms and one grabbed my legs and they carried me out the door,” Helen said.

Wearing just a nightshirt, she burned her elbow as it brushed against hot metal on the way out, but she said she’s OK, with just a few small and minor burns. She’s thankful to the firefighters who saved her and to caring neighbours, one of whom got her a blanket and slippers to wear.

The blaze ripped though Westminster Avenue and Maryland Street, destroying an 11-unit development, Flats on Westminster, and some older multi-storey houses. The fire is estimated to have caused $4.5 million in damages.

Helen has nothing good to say about the condo where the fire began. From the get go she has been opposed to the “monstrosity” being built on the site where a single-family dwelling once stood, she said. It attracted trouble before the fire, she said. Two Fridays ago she called police when she heard someone “banging around” late at night inside the building under construction.

She’s not sure if they will rebuild their razed home in the shadow of the condo or go somewhere else.

“It’s awful. I loved the house,” Helen said.

“It was a great old place. I’ve lived there over 21 years. The neighbourhood is great and the neighbours are great.”

Meanwhile, the four firefighters injured while saving the two sisters have been released from hospital, Capt. Robert Labossiere said Monday.

The firefighters were held overnight in hospital and released Sunday morning, Labossiere said. Their injuries included second-degree burns to their heads and necks.

“They are doing pretty good in their recovery but they will be off (work) for a little while yet,” Labossiere said. “They are being monitored to ensure there are no complications or infections, as well as their mental well-being.”

Labossiere said the four firefighters have been with the Winnipeg Fire and Paramedic Service for between 10 and 20 years.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

— with files from Erin DeBooy

wfpvideo:114833503:wfpvideo Neda Procner describes escaping the fire with her sister, who uses a wheelchair, after the blaze spread to their home near Maryland and Westminster early Saturday morning, April 23, 2016.