THUNDER BAY — Four members of a Nolalu-area family got out safely, but they lost all their personal possessions in a late-night fire that levelled their home near Whitefish Lake.
"Our family has suffered a devastating loss," Serena Sokolowski said in a message posted on social media Monday morning. "Woke up and seen the red from our bedroom window...Five or ten minutes waking up later and my family and I would have been dead."
She, her husband, their two children and two dogs escaped, and she wrote that she's thankful to her "guardians" for keeping them from harm.
However, Sokolowski's efforts to locate their two cats were frustrated by heavy smoke on the upper floor.
Nolalu volunteer firefighters received the alarm about 11:55 pm Sunday, but the split-level house on Cedar Sites Road was already engulfed when the 10-person crew arrived.
"We were concerned with the wind spreading it to the bush, and there were some surrounding vehicles and buildings," Chief Sarah Shoemaker of the Nolalu Emergency Services Team told Newswatch. "So we went to defensive mode to fight the fire from spreading and were successfully able to do that."
The firefighters remained on the scene until 6:30 a.m.
Shoemaker said there's so much destruction that it will be difficult to pinpoint the cause of the fire.
"Our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to the family with this loss. You know, we're coming into Christmas, and it's a hard time for anybody."
A spokesperson for the Sokolowski family said they have been overwhelmed by donations of clothing and other necessities that have come in from Thunder Bay and surrounding communities.
The request for clothing was put "on hold" Monday afternoon due to the response.
She, her husband, their two children and two dogs escaped injury, but their two cats are unaccounted for.
