A handful of workers from a St. Albert finance company got put into the fire rescue business on their way home from a recent work-related trip.
Fast Track employees Daylene Funk, Tyler Herbert, Melissa Reynolds and owner Darren Weeks were on their way home while driving along Highway 16 when they spotted a house on fire just off the highway in the community of Lavoy.
Reynolds spotted the fire and said after a quick conversation in the car, they decided to pull off the road.
"We all just made a choice to pull over to see if everyone was all right."
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After arriving they realized no emergency workers were on scene and none of the surrounding homes had been alerted to the fire, Funk said.
"We pulled over and nobody was there. There were no fire people, there were no neighbours up or anything."
Funk, a former emergency medical technician, started directing the rest of the foursome when they arrived. She went to one neighbour and attempted to wake up those inside; Weeks went to another neighbouring house, only to realize it was vacant; and Reynolds sounded their car's horn in an attempt wake up more people.
Herbert went around to the back of the house, expecting to find the home's residents who could not have got through the home's front door, because it was completely engulfed in flames.
"We just assumed that they would be out. I went around back to tell them I had called 911."
Herbert said he saw a light turn on in the house and realized there were still people inside, some of whom were asleep.
"There was actually one other gentleman, who I think was one of their neighbours, and we ran into the house to try and get everybody out."
When he went inside there was a lot of smoke, but the fire hadn't really spread into the back of the home, Herbert said.
"I opened the door and I thought the people in there probably don't realize how bad it is and if I don't go in now then it isn't going to get any better," he said.
"If I thought I was in any danger of a roof falling on me or collapsing I probably would have reconsidered."
Reynolds said she believes Herbert is downplaying his bravery.
"Tyler is trying to be modest about it all, but he definitely did a very good job to go inside a burning house," she said. "We didn't actually know he was going inside the house until he came back and told us."
Happenstance
Funk said the fact the group passed by when they did was a lucky coincidence. Having just finished up a financial seminar in Lloydminster, they normally would have driven home the next day but decided to head straight home.
"We had been on the road for a long time and so we decided we were just going to bite the bullet and head home."
Reynolds said they were held up leaving a few times, but in the end they passed by at just the right time.
"If we had driven past five minutes earlier then the fire would have been too small to see from the distance that we were. And if it had been five minutes later then it would have been too late because the house would probably have burned to the ground."
Phil Rowe, the fire services co-ordinator with the Vegreville fire department, said the house was a complete loss, but no one was injured in the blaze.
He commended the group from Fast Track for their efforts, especially placing the original call to 911.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
