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House fire kills three
May 19, 2008, Cormorant, Man. - A deadly fire ripped through a log house in the northwestern Manitoba community of Cormorant, killing the woman who rented the home, her son-in-law and her baby grandson.
May 19, 2008
By The Canadian Press
Carol Turner said her sister, Annette Turner, 46, Bradley Merasty, 20, and the man's four-month-old son perished in the fire.
She said she was visiting Saturday with her niece, Annette's daughter, when they were alerted to the blaze.
"(She) came to visit and said that her mom, husband and baby were sleeping," Turner said.
"She was only here about half an hour and then I got a call from my daughter, who said that my sister's house was on fire."
The RCMP would not confirm the deaths.
Cormorant is about 60 kilometres northeast of The Pas, on the east shore of Cormorant Lake.
Investigators from the RCMP and the Office of the Fire Commissioner were sifting through the remains in search of a cause.
"We don't know what happened. It happened so fast," Turner said.
An employee at Campbell's Store, across the street from the burned-out home, said the log house went up in flames and was destroyed before an alarm could be raised.
RCMP Sgt. Line Karpish said it's believed the house caught fire shortly after 1 p.m.
Turner said her sister lived briefly in Winnipeg, but returned to Cormorant and had been living in the house, owned by a cousin, for about five years.
The Turners are no strangers to hardship – they've lost three siblings in last three years in a drowning, a car crash and now the fire.
"We've just got to deal with it and move on even if it's hard," said Graham Turner, Annette's brother.
Autopsies are scheduled for Tuesday at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre.
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