Three girls died after they were buried and smothered in a seed truck on a farm near Rocky Mountain House on Tuesday night and friends and neighbours are coming together to help the family deal with the tragedy.
Police were called to a farm near Withrow, Alberta at about 6:15 p.m. after three girls became buried in the seed while playing on a loaded truck of canola.
EMS officials say the first arriving ambulance from Eckville determined the three girls had been inside a grain truck while it was being filled from a hopper but say it is unclear how they became submerged underneath the seed.
Bystanders at the scene quickly removed the children from the seed and called 911.
Emergency crews from surrounding areas responded and attempted to revive the children but two girls, 11 and 13, died at the scene.
An 11-year-old girl was taken to the Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton by STARS in critical condition.
On Wednesday morning, RCMP released the tragic news that the girl had passed away.
“This is hitting us all very hard. First line, front line responders are routinely called out to sad situations but things are always harder when there’s children involved,” said RCMP Sgt. Mike Numan.
Numan issued a statement from the family saying…
“Our kids died living life on the farm. It is a family farm, we do not regret raising and involving our kids. Catie, age 13, Dara, age 11, and Jana age 11, on our farm, it was our life."
"Thank you for all the overwhelming support we have received from all of the first responders, neighbours and friends. We would ask media to respect our privacy at this time of grief.”
Wildrose School Division Superintendent, Brad Volkman, says the Bott girls were well-known in the community.
“The three girls did not attend the school of late but had been attending the school up until two years ago and in a small knit community like Condor, they are know well by our staff and our students and in fact, the family would still support the school in tremendous ways, taking part in attending Christmas concerts, bringing baking for the staff and students and so they will be sorely missed,” said Volkman.
The Rocky Mountain House Victims Service Unit has been called in and is assisting the family.
“Our goal as a school division today is to have our crisis management team on site at the school to offer support for the students and the staff as needed. Our thoughts and our prayers definitely go out to the family and the entire community,” said Volkman.
Alberta’s Agriculture Minister, Oneil Carlier, offered his condolences saying…
“My thoughts are with the family of the three girls who died in the Hamlet of Withrow and my heart aches for them today. As a father myself, I believe no parent should have to bear the loss of a child.
“I join Albertans in expressing grief and sympathy for the parents of these girls as they go through this unimaginable sorrow.”
Joey Gustavson is a neighbour of the Botts and started organizing a group to help them bring in their crops as soon as he heard the news.
“We want to let Roger and Bonita know that everybody in the community cares,” said Gustavson. “Community comes together as a whole and everybody just gets together to help everybody when tragedy happens.”
Nine combines and as many as ten trucks were out in the field on Wednesday and Gustavson says together they will complete the work in a fraction of the time it would normally have taken.
“We’ll do it in about two hours,” he said. “Everybody was phoning me and I didn’t have to phone anybody and we got her all together.”
A trust fund has been established at the Eckville Credit Union at 5002 50 Street Eckville, Alberta and cheques should be made out to the Bott family in trust.
Eckville is about two hours north of Calgary.
