Grande Prairie: Margaret Edgson Manor fire traumatizes young resident

It was shortly before midnight on a Sunday, June 8, when 14-year-old Fox Merritt and family friend Blaine Martens smelled smoke in their building.

Article content

While the latter went to check it out, 14-year-old Merritt continued hanging out and playing games online with friends as he normally did. He wasn’t too worried. In previous weeks, there had been three other alarms that didn’t amount to much. He expected the same outcome.

Article content

Recommended Videos

Article content

“It had happened three other times as of recent. It wasn’t really too urgent. The past two times it was just a simple laundry room fire, and then the first time it wasn’t even a real fire. It was just kind of a surprise drill. So I wasn’t really too serious about it.”

When Martens came back, he learned it was real. They had to get out fast, Martens told the 14-year-old Merritt. Rousing his mother, Theresa Prosper, they hurried to get something on their feet, grab a sweater and get out the door of their first-floor apartment. He still didn’t think about how serious things were. He donned slippers and grabbed his phone and left.

Article content

Article content

Once outside, they looked back. He could see corner of the roof was on fire. It didn’t appear to be too serious at first.

“It got worse and worse and worse. Then the entire right side of the building was on fire, and we were just standing there for a few hours.”

Merritt remembers watching the fire surge and blaze against the night sky. He also remembers seeing an older man in a window on the fourth floor. The fire was above him and in the apartment. It looked like he couldn’t get out.

“I don’t even know how they got him out. But I do know that he got out. He almost died. I could have died.”

Sitting in the hotel, with only the clothes he left the apartment with, he’s still processing his feelings, he says.

“I just kind of feel, I don’t know how to feel. Because whenever we’ve gone to a hotel, it’s always been something exciting. And then we’re only at this hotel because we are almost, we’re completely homeless, wow. I’m homeless. I don’t know how to feel about it.”

Article content

His mother, Prosper, is worried about him. Adults have a difficult time, but young teenagers don’t have the same coping skills. Four days later, they’re wearing the same clothes while waiting and worrying about what happens next.

Standing in the lobby of the Pomeroy Hotel, she and other evacuees wait to discuss options with personnel from Grande Spirit Foundation https://www.grandespirit.org/about/ the charity overseeing the apartment building.

It’s hard to wait, she says. She’s been hanging on for days, and seeing the worry and confusion in the faces around her takes its toll.

Immediately after the fire department was called, the Grande Prairie Regional Emergency Partnership was requested. They began organizing transportation and working with other agencies to ensure evacuees had what they needed.

Article content

While they work at finding solutions, Prosper is worried about what it means for her and her family. One worker told her that she would have to activate her insurance claim and use that for emergency housing.

“Why do I have to do that right now?”

Instead, she turns and heads down the short hallway to the elevators. She’s heading back to their room to check on her son. She’s worried about how the trauma from escaping a fire, watching as people waited for rescue workers to help them, continues to impact him.

It’s a lot to handle, she adds. While she isn’t sure of all the changes yet to come, she knows that helping her son through the trauma is her priority.

Article content