Everyone safe after house fire in Ndilo overnight
It's the 2nd house fire in the Yellowknife area this week
A home in Ndilo, N.W.T., was destroyed overnight on Tuesday.
Damian Drybones, 17, said he was in the house at the time with two friends when the fire started. Drybones said he was watching over the property for the family of Mark (Hank) Lafferty, who died on Nov. 25.
He and his friends lit a fire in the wood stove to keep warm, but it wasn't long before Drybones realized something was wrong.
"We started smelling weird Styrofoam, drywall, fibreglass," he said. "We started hearing cracking in the attic."
Drybones said his friend looked inside the attic and saw that it was completely on fire.
They tried to douse the ceiling with water, but quickly realized it was having no effect.
"We didn't have time to grab our stuff," Drybones said. "We ran out with socks."
Drybones said they called the fire department and family members to let them know what was going on. He said he's heartbroken for everything lost in the fire, but glad everyone came out safe.
Drybones, who says Lafferty was like family to him, said he lost everything he had in the home.
"My jewelry, my watch and my gold is gone," he said. "I didn't even care about that. I just wanted to get [my friends] out."
It's the second house fire this week in the Yellowknife area. A heater caused a major fire at a home on Jeske Crescent on Sunday night. All of the occupants of the house, as well as their pets, got out safely.
Ndilo, a First Nations community located on the edge of Yellowknife, is home to about 200 people.
With files from Gabriela Panza-Beltrandi