Fire leaves residents without access to home

PENTICTON – Fire destroyed a car, carport and part of a kitchen late Monday night at 475 Wade Ave. West.

Residents Luis Montgomery and his mother, Janine, visited their home Tuesday afternoon with a fire marshall. Yellow tape was banded around the property.

Luis does not recall much of what happened before the fire started. He and his mother were asleep at the time. They were woken up by two teenage neighbours just before 11 p.m. The teens were pounding on the front door. Luis could hear them shouting their house was on fire.

Danny Holding-Mabley, 18, and Titus Calderbank, 16, were the ones doing the knocking. Danny says he and Titus were waiting at Titus's home after music practice. They sat on the porch across the street from 475.

"All of a sudden I heard this crackling," Danny says. He thought it was Titus's brother and sister about to let them inside.

"Out of the corner of my eye I see this orange."  

The edge of Montgomery's garage had just started burning. 

"Dude, the house is on fire!" Danny remembers shouting. They dropped their phones and other gear, dashed across the street and started knocking on the front door with the fire burning a few feet away.

Luis got his mother, grabbed the family's dogs and got everyone outside, seeing the flames which would eventually destroy a car and the carport.

"He was just yelling to get out," his mother says. Luis says no one was hurt.

Danny was glad he and Titus were there to warn them. Danny was afraid the car would explode like they do in the movies. The fire grew more intense after reaching the vehicle. The hood caught fire and off the fire went, Danny says.

The Montgomery's next-door neighbour, Yoshie Plato, was also woken up by loud banging. She was told her neighbour's home was on fire. Plato and her children ran outside in their bare feet.

"Luckily, we are all safe," she says.

Fire chief Wayne Williams says the home had working smoke alarms but it was the teens who alerted the occupants about the flames outside the building. The fire investigation continues.

Luis says he does not know when they'll be allowed to return. He is staying at a friend's home and Janine is staying at a hotel which she has to leave by Thursday. They were given time on Tuesday to take out some necessities. Luis had a bunch of shirts on hooks and his skateboard.

To contact a reporter for this story, to send photos or videos, email Shannon Quesnel at squesnel@infotelnews.ca, call 250-488-3065 or tweet @shannonquesnel1

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