SaskatchewanA family in Southey, Sask., is picking up the pieces after a fire destroyed their home last Saturday. They escaped with most of their belongings destroyed, but say the community has helped them start again. After a fire destroyed their home, a Southey family says kindness from the community has carried them throughJeffery Tram · CBC News · Posted: Nov 14, 2025 5:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 4 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Elaine Gerock with her husband, Ron, and her daughter, Lea. (Submitted by Elaine Gerock)Elaine Gerock didn’t notice the smoke right away. She was clearing dishes after supper in her home in the small town of Southey, just north of Regina, on the evening of Nov. 8. Her husband, Ron, was watching the Saskatchewan Roughriders game, while her daughter, Lea, was colouring at the kitchen table.Suddenly, an alarm shrieked through the house. Elaine went downstairs to find her furnace in flames.”I ran upstairs and just yelled at them that we’ve got to go,” she said. Moments later, she was standing in her front yard in the November cold, watching thick, black smoke pour from the windows of the home where she’d raised her family for 27 years — a home she knew she was losing.”You can see the flames coming up the front window, the ceiling started to fall in, so then you just kind of knew it was gone, and there was really just nothing to do but watch it burn,” she said.The exterior of the house after the Nov. 8 fire. (Submitted by Elaine Gerock)Elaine says it took a few minutes to get Ron and Lea out safely and call 911. Fire crews arrived shortly after the call.After dropping her family off at a neighbour’s house, she went back into the house, looking for her 10-year-old cat, Asher.”The whole main floor was filled with smoke. It was, like, black. It was like night in there,” she said.Elaine left shortly after, unable to find Asher. She says firefighters told her they heard a cry from the basement.”I don’t think she made it out,” Elaine said.By the time firefighters could access the basement, the main floor had largely collapsed, Elaine said. Crews fought the fire until around 3 a.m.Crews battling the house fire in Southey on Saturday, Nov. 8. (Submitted by Elaine Gerock)The family lost nearly everything.”It’s somebody’s whole life,” Elaine said. “Twenty-seven years is a long time. All those memories.”A community steps in Word of the fire soon spread through Southey, a town of just over 800 people, about 55 kilometres north of Regina.Angela Davis and her family were at home when they got a message from their son with a simple question: Would they be willing to offer their empty house to Elaine and Ron?Davis and her husband, Les, had moved to a nearby farm in the country about a year ago, leaving their former home in town mostly cleared out — but still furnished. Davis says the decision took no time at all.”It was just a no-brainer,” she said. “We never thought of it at first, but when we got that message, we didn’t even have to think about it.”What was initially a long, slow process of cleaning the house for sale suddenly had a new purpose.”Everything happens for a reason,” Davis said. “We still had quite a bit of furniture in there. And of course, Elaine and Ron had … lost everything. So we were fortunate to have all this in the house for them, and it just needed a good cleaning.”Davis said the house is likely to be ready for move-in midweek, once cleaning and final preparations are finished, and the home will be theirs as long as they need it.”It could be a couple years,” she said. “There’s no rush — it’s there for her and her family.”‘Everyone just chips in’Davis grew up in the area and has known Elaine for years. She says what her family is doing is no different than what many others in Southey have done in the past week.”When misfortune hits, you just step in and do whatever you can,” she said. “That’s what everyone else in town has done — everyone just chips in.”Food, clothing donations, bedding, toiletries, furniture, grocery gift cards and monetary donations have poured in. Friends have given Lea art supplies and activities. Elaine’s co-workers have been collecting essentials. Strangers have shared and donated to a GoFundMe fundraiser organized by the family’s son-in-law. As of Thursday evening, nearly $36,000 had been raised.The interior damage from the house fire. (Submitted by Elaine Gerock)For Elaine, who has been caring for Ron through his stroke recovery, the support has been overwhelming.”In less than a week, they’ve given us a new start,” she said. “I just want to say thank you — for every hug, every gift, just thinking about us.”For now, she said she’s trying to take it one day at a time.”We’re living out of boxes and grocery bags,” she said. “My biggest goal is to get us settled, and the rest will work itself out.”She knows it could take years before her family has a permanent home again. But amid the loss, she says what stands out most is the kindness surrounding them.”Our lives were turned upside down less than a week ago,” Elaine said. “And you’ve given us a new start.”ABOUT THE AUTHORJeffery is a reporter with CBC Saskatchewan in Regina. He previously worked at CBC Toronto as an associate producer. You can reach him at jeffery.tram@cbc.ca.
‘Our lives were turned upside down’: Southey community supports family after devastating house fire
