Airdrie community comes together to support fire victims

A fire tore through two homes in the Prairie Winds area of Airdrie on Aug. 7, destroying two homes and damaging others.

The fire left Cassandra Minkevics and Dana Johnson without a home. Cassandra rented the first two levels of the home, while Dana was the tenant in the basement suite.

“I opened the blinds and there was just flames right up the side of the house,” recounted Johnson. “It became quite clear it had been up in flames for quite some time and I was literally sleeping through it.”

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Johnson managed to escape safely and was relieved when he remembered that Minkevics and her son were both away camping.

“I just remembered Dana’s message that the house burned down,” said Minkevics. “It’s hard to describe it, it just took my breath away.”

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Within days several GoFundMe accounts were set up for Minkevics, Johnson and the family that lived in the house that suffered the most damage.

Johnson was overwhelmed at the response, as most of his family lives on the East Coast.

“From the bottom of my heart I’m just completely grateful for everything they’ve done,” he said.

The RCMP said that the cause of the fire is still under investigation.