A fundraising effort has been launched to help a Lambton County family who lost everything in a house fire just one week before Christmas.
The Dawn-Euphemia Fire Department arrived at 1550 Pantry School Rd. around noon on Sunday to find flames coming through the roof of the home.
Chief Dave Williams says the Sanderson family got out of the home without injury after being alerted by a smoke detector.
"They literally got out with the shirts on their back," says Williams. "It was a family of five, two adults and three kids. I guess the bright spot is, if there is a bright spot, is that it happened at 12pm in the middle of the afternoon, versus 12am at night."
He says damage was so extensive a cause will never be determined.
"We had to tear [the house] down it get at [the fire]. It's an older house with balloon type construction and that kind of presents some problems," says Williams. "We had a rubber tire backhoe in there to knock it down to get out the hot spots."
Williams says if the family hadn't had a working smoke detector, the outcome could have been much different.
"As the holiday season approaches, make sure your smoke alarms are working. Test them. Test your CO2 alarms and if you're using a real tree, keep it watered," he says.
He says they're collecting donations for the family, which can be dropped off at the fire hall Thursday between 1:30pm and 5pm.
A GoFundMe campaign has also been started, to donate click here.
Oil Springs fire responded with mutual aid to help battle the blaze.