Brady Playford, his girlfriend and his two-year-old daughter escape Thursday morning’s fire with nothing but the clothes on their back.  

Playford said he woke up to his girlfriend yelling because she saw some smoke. He woke up and saw water dripping through the ceiling, so they went to wake up their roommate.  

At about 2 a.m., Playford said smoke began to fill the residence. He saw flames coming out of the cupboards. He tried opening the cupboards to see how bad it was, but the cupboards were completely engulfed in flames.  

“We gathered up our animals, my daughter, our roommate and we got the heck out of there and called 9-1-1 and they showed up within 10 minutes,” he said.  

Playford said he knows the people in the basement got out OK. He said there are people who lived upstairs from him. He didn’t see them come out.  

“We’re hoping that no one was home,” Playford said.  

After the fire, Playford said they were able to go to his parent’s place, but it only has one-bedroom so he was unsure where they were going to spend the night. (UPDATE: Playford posted on social media that Red Cross has put them up in a hotel so they have a warm, safe place to stay)  

At around noon, Playford put a post up on the MJ Talks Facebook page asking for the community’s help.  

“My daughter is two years old and we lost everything, so we lost all of her clothes, her snowsuit, her toys. My girlfriend, all she got out was her bare feet and pyjamas,” he said.  

Within a couple of hours, the Facebook post had over 130 comments from people in Moose Jaw reaching out to see what they can do to help.  

Facebook post

Playford said he’s been overwhelmed by the response of the community reaching out to help him.  

“I was not expecting that. It truly is the friendly city. I can’t thank people enough for how much people have really reached out and tried to help us,” he said.  

The Moose Jaw Fire Department is currently investigating the cause of the fire.