Volleyball moms serve up plea for action after tragic Driftwood Inn fire
Bernice Hillier | CBC News | Posted: November 28, 2024 9:30 AM | Last Updated: November 28
Justice Dept. says investigation into the fatal fire is still ongoing
Two mothers from Bishop's Falls are raising concerns about fire safety after a weekend of travel with their daughters' volleyball team in October turned into a nightmare.
Katie Conway and Dena Ellis were staying at the Driftwood Inn in Deer Lake when fire broke out Oct. 19 and destroyed the hotel, leading to the death of a man from the United States who was in the province on a hunting trip.
The women told CBC Radio's Newfoundland Morning that no smoke alarms sounded, no sprinklers were activated, and there were no illuminated exit signs to show guests the way out.
"There was nothing that would have led me out of there, and the only bit of light I had was the flames from the front entrance," recalls Ellis, whose 14-year-old daughter was competing in a volleyball tournament in Corner Brook that weekend.
Fortunately, Ellis's daughter had already escaped the burning building by the time Ellis made the decision to make a run for the front door, in spite of the smoke and flames all around the entrance.
Conway had been among the first to discover the fire, sometime before 7 a.m., and she has been credited with alerting many other hotel patrons in time to get them to safety.
She said another person in the hotel had physically pulled a fire alarm, but only after several other hotel patrons were already up and aware of the fire.
She's worried that other older buildings in the region may pose a similar threat.
"It should not matter how old a building is. They all need to be up to code," said Conway, whose 13-year-old daughter also played in the Corner Brook tournament.
Smoke meant fire
Ellis and Conway both said they awoke to the smell of smoke on the early morning that Saturday, and at first they were confused as to where the smoke might be coming from.
However, on exiting their second-storey rooms and going to the stairwell, they realized that there was a fire on the lower level, where their daughters' team had their hotel rooms.
The women said they believe that if the hotel had been equipped with functioning smoke alarms and sprinklers, the damage would have been contained and everyone in the building would have been quickly and safely evacuated without any panic.
"I definitely think having those things in place would have made our situation a lot less traumatic," said Ellis.
Still feeling the impact
The aftermath of the fire is something both women said they are still dealing with on a daily basis more than a month after it happened.
Ellis and Conway said their daughters are still affected by loud noises and any hint of the smell of smoke, and their sleep has been disrupted by nightmares.
"I find nighttime to be the worst, going to bed and going back to that feeling of when we went to bed at the hotel and woke up to all the chaos," said Ellis.
Conway said that, in the fire, her daughters both lost special, sentimental items that they had slept with all of their lives.
"Nighttime is very rough for them," said Conway, and she said memories also flood back during the day. "The school bells, just loud, sudden noises, the smell of wood smoke outside, just random daily triggers all the time."
The women say it's worse knowing one guest lost his life.
"Knowing that someone didn't make it out of there, I think it was at that point that we all realized how close we were to that being all of us," said Ellis. "That definitely was heartbreaking to hear about."
Igniting a purpose
Ellis and Conway say that their experience and the death of Eugene Spoon, the American hunter, have made them determined to advocate for improvements in fire safety measures.
Conway said parents and coaches of the two Bishop's Falls teams who were staying in the Driftwood Inn keep in touch, and a common theme in their discussions is that speaking out about fire safety is important after everything they'd been through.
"Maybe this had happened to us so that we can make sure that it never happens to anyone else," said Conway.
The women say they'll also be more vigilant the next time they travel about checking for smoke detectors, exits, and muster points.
Conway said she'll opt to stay on a lower level, and that she'll check out vacation rental options such as Airbnb instead of booking a hotel room.
She said she'd like to see a commitment from the province that buildings that are open to the public will be inspected regularly and brought up to code.
CBC asked the Department of Justice and Public Safety for an interview with the provincial fire commissioner, but the department declined.
Instead, department spokesperson Eric Humber sent an emailed statement.
"The fire at the Driftwood Inn is an active and ongoing investigation," Humber wrote, "and the department is unable to speak to details of the investigation, or prejudge outcomes, at this time."
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