Three pets perished in a fire that devastated a home in Manitoba earlier this week.

According to St. Malo Deputy Fire Chief David Gentes, the house ignited at 5 a.m. Sunday near the southern Manitoba community.

“It was a tricky fire because there was some old sawdust or wood chips being used for insulation in the walls, and there were bales on one side of the house,” he says. “It kept restarting.”

With so much flammable material nearby, the blaze quickly spread throughout the building. Crews were on scene fighting the fire for over eight hours but Gentes says the home and its contents were totally destroyed.

The shell of the burned down home

Homeowner Kerri Stephens took to Facebook this week to mourn. “Nothing is salvageable and our peaceful, beautiful home that we loved is a total loss,” she wrote. “Three of our beloved pets didn’t make it out despite all efforts and my heart is broken to lose them.”

Stephens says the fact that she and her family are safe is itself remarkable. She makes note of that on social media as well.

“We were sleeping when it started and got out just in time. It’s incredible that Pauli [her partner] woke up when he did or this would be a very different story.”

Following the tragedy, a friend of Stephens’ set up a GoFundMe page to help the family recover financially. Anyone interested in supporting them is invited to visit the page called “Rebuild Kerri’s Home.” Already, donations have begun pouring in and Stephens says she is blown away by people’s kindness and generosity, even as she continues to reel from the unexpected events.