‘Complete rubble’: Man describes flight from burning North Battleford motel

“I ran inside and grabbed my girlfriend… literally grabbed her, grabbed our vehicles, and drove off.”

Keenan Redl was staying at the Canadian Motel North Battleford, which his company always uses, when he heard a dog barking and smelled smoke.

“All of a sudden I started smelling something burning, and I’m like, ‘odd.’ So I go and I look out my window and you, you know, you see some light kind of flowing. Open the door, walk out, and 20 feet roughly from my room there’s one room just burning, coming out the doors, the windows — the windows melted everything.”

A post on the city’s Facebook page said RCMP, CSOs and WPD Ambulance also attended, along with local heavy equipment operators, as the fire was close to a gas station. (Keenan Redl/Submitted)

Redl said he and his girlfriend, who was visiting for Thanksgiving, were watching movies and playing games when at around 10 p.m. they had to evacuate their motel room, which would soon be ashes.

“Within 20 minutes one-half of the motel was completely up in flames,” Redl explained. “Just a race to try and make sure everyone was far enough away and not in harm’s way.”

The Canadian Motel North Battleford on fire. (Keenan Redl/Submitted)

He estimated the motel was three-quarters full of people at the time of the fire. Redl said he’s thankful for the dog who alerted him about the fire.

“I’m almost certain he was part of the reason why a lot of people got out in time,” he said.

Redl said he and his girlfriend lost all the belongings they had with them.

“I’ve been doing this eight years,” he said. “I bring pretty much my life on the road with me.”

The remnants after a fire in the evening of Oct. 14 at the Canadian Motel North Battleford. (Keenan Redl/Submitted)

Standing roughly 200 feet away from the motel, Redl described scene on the morning after the fire.

“Everything but about three rooms in the main office is complete rubble,” he said, noting that the building appeared to be largely made of concrete.

— with files from 650 CKOM’s Alex Brown