RADVILLE — Samantha Tegart and her partner Greg Stewart are being hailed as heroes after saving their neighbours from a house fire.
The couple, who lives in Radville, had to be up early to get to work at their jobs in the southeast oil patch. According to Tegart, she went outside at 4 a.m. to start their truck. At the time, she didn’t see anything unusual.
She went inside, and when she exited the house again a short time later, she noticed an orange light in her peripheral vision. Tegart looked up and saw a neighbour’s front porch was on fire. She went in the house, called for her boyfriend, and they went to the house.
'Wake up!' 'Get out'!
Stewart went to the front door and Tegart to the side, and were banging on the doors, calling on the family to “Get Up”! and “Get out”! The flames became too high for Stewart at the front of the house, so he went to the side door as well and kicked it open.
“So, we went in and woke everybody up so they could hear us,” said Tegart.
One of the occupants emerged to ask what was happening, and was told the house was on fire and to exit the building.
The couple helped the family evacuate the house. The fire department showed up and extinguished the blaze.
All eight people and a dog were able to exit the building safely. One person, who was in the house the longest helping the family escape, needed treatment for a couple of hours, Tegart said, and he also needed medication to help his lungs function properly again. And they had smoke irritation in their throats.
Stewart added he initially thought he could bring the fire under control, so he grabbed a garden hose, and spent a few minutes spraying the flames with water.
“It wasn’t working, and it was getting bigger and bigger and bigger,” said Stewart.
Tegart noted two people typically live in the house, but others were visiting during the long weekend to celebrate a family member’s birthday. Children were among those visiting.
Oilfield background helped in response
The couple works for Pro-Active Consulting, based out of Regina, but they have been with Kingston Midstream near Alida, cleaning out tanks. Tegart is a confined space attendant and safety watch. She monitors the gases to make sure they don’t reach high levels. Stewart is an air hand who supplies oxygen to those in the tanks with airlines and monitors oxygen levels.
They have to be up early for work due to the commute from Radville to the Alida area.
“For some reason, we woke up a lot earlier and we were just ready to go, so we ended up leaving earlier,” said Tegart.
Luckily, they were outside shortly after the fire broke out, because they couldn’t smell the smoke from their house.
They believe their careers in the patch helped with their response to the incident. Tegart has been at her present job for a couple of months.
“Prior to becoming involved in the oilfield, I never had my CPR and first aid, I never talked to people about things that have happened on rigs. I’ve never taken certain certificates that train you in this type of stuff.”
“Running into the house and waking them up wasn’t in the course,” she said with a laugh later, “but you do what you have to do to get everybody out.”
Stewart usually works on drilling rigs, but found work elsewhere during spring break-up.
He added his experience in the patch helped him remain calm rather than freaking out during the fire.
Family is OK
From what she has heard, Tegart said the family is shaken up about losing their home but they’re in good spirits.
“They’re just happy everyone’s alive, and they can live to the next day, and I think that’s what’s keeping them going,” said Tegart.
She has talked to her neighbour a couple of times since the incident.
“We didn’t do it to get recognition. We just did it because when you see a fire, you instantly run towards it, and want to help anybody that’s in danger,” she said.
The neighbour is with family and looking to rebuild her life.
The homeowner and the family has received lots of support, Tegart said. When adversity strikes, Tegart said the people of the Radville area step up to help the victims in any situation.
“We’ve got a lot of thanks from the Radville fire department and the Radville RCMP, just letting us know that if we weren’t going to work that morning, it would have been a different story, so they thanked us for our quick actions. The family themselves has messaged us, all of them, and just thanked us again for saving their lives and their kids’ lives.”
Stewart said they have received a lot of thanks and well wishes from people in the area, and news outlets have been reaching out to the family.
“A thank you would be good enough. Anyone would have done this," he said. "I’m no different from anyone. Sam’s no different from anyone. I’m sure if anyone had seen a fire like that, with no one around – early hours of the morning, you’re the only people there – you gotta do what you gotta do,” he said, adding he's just glad everybody got out safely.
'A great thing they did’
Radville-Laurier Volunteer Fire Department Chief Byron Labbie credited Tegart and Stewart for their response.
“It was a great thing they did, otherwise we would probably have been dealing with a lot worse scenario than we did," the fire chief said.
He’s not aware of anyone who has done something similar to Tegart and Stewart in the community since he has been with the department.
“We’re just thankful that they did what they did," he said.
Labbie noted the damage was “very extensive” and the house will likely be a total loss. The home was a ready-to-move structure that was moved onto the site in 2013. He added the garage, vehicles and a camper were not damaged.
The fire department received the call at 4:29 a.m. and didn’t return to the hall until 1 p.m. Ten firefighters were involved in the response.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but Labbie said it’s not believed to be suspicious.
