Mobile home fire kills woman
Boyfriend clinging to life after being pulled from blaze
Tamara Gignac, Calgary Herald
Published: Saturday, September 06, 2008
An Airdrie woman is dead and her boyfriend is clinging to life after an early-morning house fire at a mobile home park.
Two other occupants of the home -- 34-year-old Sherri Michaud and her three-year-old daughter Adriana -- escaped the burning home unharmed after a smoke detector alerted them to the blaze.
"Mom and baby are safe. The saving grace is that Mom got out, she got her baby," said neighbour Connie Charbonneau, who works with Michaud at the Royal Canadian Legion and shares a back fence with her at the Trailer Courts off Main Street.
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"I rushed out, ran around the corner and Sherri saw me and screamed my name." Michaud's 21-year-old stepbrother was taken to Foothills Hospital with severe burns. His name, and that of his 21-year-old girlfriend, are being withheld until next of kin are notified.
Smoke and flames were visible from the home when emergency crews arrived shortly after 6 a.m. Friday.
It is believed the fire started outside the residence and quickly spread.
"It started on the deck and we don't exactly know the cause at this point," said RCMP Const. Francine Hiebert.
"But it's not suspicious in nature at all." Hiebert declined to comment on whether smoking was a factor in the blaze, noting the investigation is still ongoing.
Next door neighbour Irene Melenchuk was getting ready for her job at a local cafe on Main Street shortly after 6 a.m. when her husband told her he spotted an orange glow from inside the adjacent mobile home.
Still in her pajamas, Melenchuk quickly roused her adult sons and headed outside, where she heard screams coming from Michaud's home.
"That's when I was scared -- I've never heard anything like that in my entire life," said Melenchuk.
She was standing near the north end of the trailer when a police officer called out for help carrying the young man to safety. "I picked up his legs, and they were terribly burned. That will be with me for a long time." Michaud is keeping vigil at her brother's bedside, friends say, and little Adriana is in the care of family and friends in the park.
"The neighbours got together, and before the baby even knew the house was on fire, she was with a grandma that she just met, and an elderly lady across the laneway let her come in and watch cartoons and eat cookies and milk in the morning," said Charbonneau.
