NS mother and children recall harrowing escape from house fire, grateful for community support – Halifax | The Canadian News

A Nova Scotia family is counting their blessings especially this Thanksgiving as their community gathers to help them after their harrowing escape from a house fire.

Heather Hepburn and her three children were asleep around 5 a.m. last Tuesday when the fire broke out at their two-story home in Debert, NS.

Heather’s husband, who happens to be a volunteer firefighter for Debert Station, was working at the time.

When the smoke detector went off, Heather was the only one who heard it.

“I started yelling, ‘fire!’ wake up the kids because, of course, they all slept through the fire alarm, ”she recalled.

“They tried going down the stairs for a minute and then they came back up because the fire was at the foot of our stairs. So we were stuck upstairs. “

Heather said she accompanied her children, a seven-year-old boy and two girls, 14 and 17, to her son’s room. The door was closed, and as she desperately called 911, the family was forced to make a quick life or death decision.

“And at that point, the smoke and the heat, the heat scared me the most. When you feel the heat pouring into the room. Just terrifying, ”he said.

“I wouldn’t say two minutes, and I was smashing the window and telling the kids, ‘We have to jump! We are going to die or we have to jump. ‘

Heather said her 14-year-old daughter, Allana, was a “hero” who picked up her younger brother and threw him out the window when he was initially too scared to jump.

“When I saw that he was struggling, my mind immediately went like, ‘I could feel this heat. I can’t see two feet in front of me. We’re going out through this window now, ‘”Allana recalled.

“When I first made it to the ground, I immediately got out of the way so my sister could get out, and when I managed to get up and hit the road, I did the first thing that came to mind and yelled at people. at the top of my lungs for help trying to wake up the neighbors. “

While the family had discussed their fire escape plans before, as they live with a firefighter, the urgency was something no one expected.

“All decisions have to be made very quickly and the smoke went from being barely bearable to 100% unbearable in about a minute. It was crazy, ”Heather said.

The family estimated there was a 15-foot drop from the window. Heather and her two daughters ended up with compression fractures of the spine, and Allana was transferred to the IWK Health Center in Halifax, where she had a brace fitted.

His son was left with “a couple of scratches and bruises.”

While the family was still recovering in the hospital, the community began to mobilize and gather support. Donations came in, from food to clothes to money, and a Go Fund Me Donations Page It was started by the Allana school.

“It has been amazing. It’s humbling to see everyone come together at a time like this, and I should have known because I know we’ve been. Nova Scotia has a reputation for that, for coming together when people need it, ”Heather said.

Heather said the family lost almost everything in the fire.

In addition, they had recently started a business to breed their dogs and had six newborn puppies and three adult Rottweilers in the house. The dogs died, as did two cats, although the family hopes that one of the cats survived.

While they have not yet received the official cause of the fire, it is believed that it started in a heater in the laundry area.

Heather said the goal is to rebuild the house, although her top priority now is to be thankful and treasure what they have.

“I am so, so lucky and so blessed that my children are here, and I give thanks for that every day because when it comes down to it, as much as we love our animals and as much as we miss them, what matters is that we are still together, ”he said.

“We are the window club. According to my daughter, she considers us the window club. “