A LOCAL business has begun collecting donations for a family who lost everything in a house fire yesterday.
Rona, where one of the family members works, has put out a donation jar at the cashier.
Thornhill firefighters were called out to the fire on Skaarland Road, south of Terrace, at 2:30 a.m. April 11.
They arrived to find the residence engulfed in flames but the five occupants had got out and weren't hurt, said Patterson.
The occupants were checked by ambulance attendants on the scene, and assisted by emergency social services.
An excavator was alled in to knock down the two-storey house, and work finished up to put out the last of the flames around 2:30 p.m. that same afternoon.
Patterson reminds residents to make sure their smoke detectors are working, as this residence didn’t have smoke detectors so the family was lucky to get out alive.
“One of them woke up and smelled smoke and got the rest of the family up and out,” said Patterson.
The blaze started in the home's crawlspace, but the cause is unknown, said Patterson.