CENTRE RAWDON: All Christine Withrow could think about as she stared helplessly as her family’s home went up in flames was what could have been.

“It could have been a lot worse,” Withrow told a relative. “It could have been during the night when we would be sleeping.”

By the time the first firefighters from Rawdon and District Volunteer Fire Department arrived on the scene at about 2:30 p.m., the Centre Rawdon home where Christine, her husband Harold and their family shared was fully engulfed in flames. The family pet, Molly a part Labrador-Golden retriever, who the family had only got a couple weeks earlier, perished in the fire.

Upon arrival, Rawdon fire chief Jeff Bond said they knew the fire at the two-storey house, which was white with the basement part done in bricks, was bad and requested Valley dispatch to follow protocol for a working structure fire. That meant mutual aid response from Brooklyn, Windsor, Kennetcook and District, Gore and District, Maitland and District, Summerville, Hantsport, Nine Mile River and Elmsdale Volunteer Fire Departments. Windsor RCMP members also responded to the scene to help with traffic control.

A volunteer firefighter was also helping with traffic control stopping vehicles at the nearby Withrow’s Farm Market to allow traffic coming towards Rawdon to pass by the scene as one lane around the scene was open.

“The house was fully engulfed when we arrived,” Bond said. “Brooklyn’s chief was first on scene and he notified me it was a full fledge structure fire.”

A crew member with the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal was passing by the scene every five or 10 minutes salting Highway 14 to keep the access water the firefighters were using and dropping on the road from freezing over with the temperature falling.

After getting most of the fire contained, the firefighters helped the family remove some farm clothing and other items from the basement of the house, which had red trim around its windows. It appeared the fire destroyed the house.

Crews from Nova Scotia Power were also called to the scene as the fire came dangerously close to the power lines connected to the home. They cut power to the home at about 4:15 p.m.

As family and friends gathered to comfort the Withrow’s with hugs and offering to help in anyway possible, firefighters began to fight the fire in the basement, breaking a window near the entrance so they could spray water to douse what looked like a bad fire.

In the meantime, she said the family will be staying at a neighbour’s until they can figure out what their next step is.

Bond said firefighters would remain on the scene until 7 p.m. They would monitor the site throughout the night for hotspots.

“We don’t know yet what the cause was,” Bond said. “It’s still under investigation. The fire marshal will be coming to the scene tomorrow (Jan. 19).”

phealey@enfieldweeklypress.com