‘We are going to die’

Debert mother and three children escape blaze by jumping out second-floor window

DEBERT, N.S. - Trapped in an upstairs bedroom filled with “unbearable” heat and smoke, and the flames climbing ever higher, Heather Clare and her three children had two choices – jump or die.

So, they jumped – approximately five metres to the ground.

“It shocked me how fast it happened. But it went from hard to breathe to unbearable and we could feel the heat,” the Debert resident said, of the recent fire that destroyed the family’s home.

“That’s something we’re never told about. They always tell you, like, get down low to avoid the smoke. But the heat made me panic and I turned around and looked at my daughter and said we’re going to have to jump.”

When eldest daughter Emily, 17, said: ‘Mom I’m too scared, I can’t jump,’ Heather uttered words no mother wants to tell her children.

“The worst words that came out of my mouth that night were: ‘We are going to die.’

“When the heat and the smoke got so bad and the panic set in, I turned and looked at my kids and said: ‘We’re going to die,’” she said.

“I said, ‘we don’t have a choice. Either you jump or you die.’”

Fortunately, everyone survived, although her two daughters both received serious back injuries when they hit the ground.

Heather suffered cuts and bruises, a sore back and a sprained ankle. Her son Josh, 7, escaped with cut and bruises, but as with the rest, must deal with nightmarish memories.

Unfortunately, the family lost three pure-bred Rottweiler dogs, six puppies and three cats, one of which was a support cat for her daughter Allana, 14, who suffers from depression and anxiety.

Heather said she was awakened about 5 a.m. by the smoke alarm and within seconds realized the house was burning.

“It was just full of smoke. So I started screaming for the girls and Josh to wake up because, obviously, we had a fire.”

Heather told her kids to get downstairs as she quickly returned to her bedroom for her robe. When she came back out she met the anxious children who informed her the fire was blocking their exit down the stairs, at which point she ushered them into her son’s bedroom.

“So, we all got in the room and closed the door behind us and I immediately went to the window and opened the window to try and get some air for us.”

Heather said she then called 911 on her cell phone and hastily told the dispatcher they were “trapped” in the burning house.

Barely able to breathe through the heavy smoke and panicked by the intense heat, Heather said she wrapped her robe around her arm and broke out the window, which wouldn’t stay up on its own. She then jumped out first, hoping to “buffer” the impact for her children as they jumped out.

“It knocked the wind out of all of us, we were all pretty badly banged up,” she said while speaking from her in-law’s home where the family is currently staying.

After checking on her children gathered in the yard, Heather said she then ran and opened the front door and hollered for their pets.

“And when they didn’t come and I didn’t hear them, I closed back the door and I knew it was too late for them.”

As the family laid together on the lawn, Heather said neighbours began showing up with blankets and firefighters also started to arrive, including her father- and brother-inlaw.

Her common-law husband Kenny Hepburn, also a firefighter, was working the overnight shift at the nearby Home Hardware distribution centre when he and another member of the Debert brigade were paged to the blaze.

“He was halfway across the parking lot when his phone rang,” she said. The call was from an on-scene RCMP officer who informed Kenny that the fire was at his house but that his family was safe and “not to rush … but he had to be there.”

After arriving home and checking on his family, Heather said he told her was going to put on his bunker gear and check out the fire.

“And I said: ‘Yes you are,’ because he knows that house better than anybody else and he went in and started guiding the teams through the building to try and fight down this fire that had consumed our home.”

Heather said she and her children are still suffering from flashbacks of the fire and she continues to marvel at how they all survived.

“I really don’t know how we got out alive,” she said. “They tell you you’ve got apparently about two to three minutes to get out (of a burning house) and that was probably the maximum amount of time we were in there.”

Heather’s back and sprained ankle remain sore and she has stitches in a thigh that was cut from glass when she jumped through the window.

Emily has two vertebrae compression fractures in her spine and a fractured wrist.

Her daughter Allana suffered the worst injuries.

“There (are) two vertebrae in her spine that basically look like pieces of cheese. They’re triangular-shaped and she’s got one burst (vertebrae) fracture where pieces of bone came off,” she said.

For the moment, her youngest daughter has to wear a back brace and while her longterm prognosis is not known, Heather said they are hoping she can avoid having back surgery.

Although the century-plus home was insured, Heather said there will not be enough to cover the entire cost to rebuild but she expressed gratitude at the degree of community and family support they are receiving.

“The community has been amazing, they’ve sent lots of clothing by, we’ve got some winter clothes for our kids and stuff which is great, we don’t have to worry too much about that,” she said, adding: “Thank God for family. And I feel for anybody who doesn’t have that support who has to go through something like this.”

Marie Benoit, the municipal councillor for the area, said before she was even aware of the fire, she received a phone call from a resident wanting to support a 50-50 raffle the person just assumed would be underway. Benoit did proceed with the raffle, which raised about $700. Clothing donations also came in and the Debert Fire Brigade was donating the proceeds a couple of its 50-50 draws.

Benoit marvelled at the overall outpouring of community support that springs to life whenever adversity strikes.

“Our community is amazing when tragedy happens, or somebody has a house fire or a health problem or something like that,” she said. “The community are the ones that step up, clothing, donations, gift cards, food ... I can’t say enough about the Debert and area communities,” she said.

The fire is believed to have started from a heater in the rear porch of the house.

A Gofundme account ( https://gofund.me/4d15fd28) has also been established to help the family recover.