Southern Alberta family displaced after house fire overwhelmed with donations from community

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. -

A southern Alberta family have lost all their belongings and house after a fire ripped through their home earlier this week. A plea from surrounding neighbours went out and the family has been overwhelmed with donations.

What started as a regular Tuesday morning for the Baker family quickly turned into their worst nightmare when their house went up in flames around 9:30 a.m..

“I had just gone around the whole house collecting presents to wrap for Christmas for our family and friends. I walked over to my parents’ house (across the yard) to drop off a few items we had of theirs that I found when collecting the presents,” said Amy Baker. “No more than three minutes later I ran into the house, I tried to find where the fire was coming from, I searched my top floor and didn’t see anything – I got to the top of the stairs for our lower level and I couldn’t see a thing or get down there.

"I ran out of the house and called 911.”

Within 15 minutes the fire had spread throughout the whole house located southeast of Lethbridge.

But, within hours of the blaze, donations of clothing, shelter, food, money and Christmas presents began to pour in from surrounding neighbours. According to Courtney and Amy, donations are still continuing to arrive more than 48 hours after the fire.

“The community has been amazing, I can’t say thank you enough. Every time someone comes up to give me a hug, I think that’s what’s keeping us going – this town is amazing,” said Amy. “My six-year-old’s main worry is that she wasn’t going to have Christmas and the community is definitely going to do that, it’ll probably be one of her best Christmases ever.”

The Bakers' home after the fire was extinguished, Dec. 15, 2021. PHOTO CREDIT: Karsen Marczuk

Unfortunately, this isn’t the family’s first time facing a devastating event. In 2013, the family’s home in High River was destroyed by the flood when more than five feet of water flooded their basement.

However, the family is doing its best to put a terrible event in perspective.

“The flood did that for us – it reminded us that possessions mean nothing and god help us that this didn’t happen a few hours earlier when we were all sleeping,” said Courtney.

The family was able to get three of their dogs and numerous cats out of the house, but sadly one of the dogs and cat didn’t make it out.

The family of five, including a six-year-old, eight-year-old and 10-year-old, have only lived in the house for six months and say they are planning to stay put once the rebuild begins.

“The community has definitely made sure that this is home for us, so we aren’t going anywhere,” said Amy.

The family wants to thank the community and surrounding neighbours for all the support and donations they received over the past few days including all the fire departments that responded to the call.

“We are a strong family and we will get through this, but it's going to be a long winter and road to recovery,” said Courtney.

Amy’s friend, Theah McKee, has set up a GoFundMe page for the family, which has so far raised just shy of $11,000.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation and there is no estimated cost of damage at this time.