Campers, staff escape Dauphin blaze

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/07/2016 (2829 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dozens of children, staff and volunteers escaped without injury Monday when fire destroyed the main building at Dauphin Bible Camp.

Dauphin Fire Department chief Cameron Abrey said Tuesday there were more than 60 children at the camp, and about a dozen of them were in the building when the fire broke out in an electrical box in the boy’s bathroom. He said there were about 40 camp employees and volunteers at the scene.

Firefighters had no chance to save the 41-year-old building, which housed kitchen and dining facilities and the camp’s chapel, Abrey said.

“It began to collapse within the first 10 to 15 minutes on scene,” he said. “When we arrived… we had smoke coming from all portions of the building.”

He praised the fast, “smooth as silk” action of camp staff — most of whom are between the ages of 16 and 23 — in quickly getting the kids to safety. “It was a shining example of how practice makes perfect,” he said.

Wayne Eisbrenne, Manitoba director of camp operator One Hope Canada, said campers were sent home, but the plan is for activities to resume Aug. 3. Construction of an alternate building for kitchen and dining facilities has just been completed, providing some good news among the bad.

There were plans to modify the main building with an expanded chapel and gymnasium. It will cost between $800,000 and $1 million to replace the building, but Eisbrenne is staying positive after the loss.

“The kids are all safe, the staff are all safe,” he said. “On the whole, (I’m) feeling very thankful because it could have been much, much worse.”

The camp is located about 15 kilometres south of Dauphin.

aidan.geary@freepress.mb.ca