It took the combined efforts of volunteer fire crews from three different towns to control a blaze in Manor on the morning of Wednesday, April 8. Fire departments from Manor, Carlyle, and Redvers all had to work together as a trailer caught fire and high winds spread that fire to a nearby house. 

"Manor was dispatched to a garage/house trailer fire," said Brad Hutton of the Redvers Fire Department. "It was a fully involved fire so Manor was attacking it. Due to that with the trailer fire and the high-speed winds, it started a house on fire as well down the street. Carlyle was attacking that and they called in Redvers as extra backup and help to get the fire out."

Hutton said his department was there for a few hours, even though they were the third group called out. And despite their best efforts, the trailer that had the original fire and the house that caught fire after were both almost completely destroyed. 

"It'll be a total loss house fire," said Hutton. "The upper structure roof area is completely burnt out for the most part and then lots of water damage. Going down we had to pull some ceilings on the main floor apart as well to make sure no hot spots were left... the trailer is a complete loss. It's burnt right down to the ground."

Hutton did not yet know what started the fire but he did know that no one from the crews was hurt, and the occupants of both homes were unharmed as well. In many ways, they got a bit lucky, as heavy winds spread the fire to one home and could've spread it further. 

"The house fire was definitely hard to contain," Hutton said. "It spread pretty quickly, hot embers obviously move. We're not sure how it got in, but it definitely was inside of the roofline. We managed to maintain enough moisture and water on the roof to never actually see visible flames coming out. That was our biggest fear, to make sure we didn't get flames and embers coming off the hope because that wind would've just kept jumping it house to house really quickly."

The fire ended with those two buildings, and Hutton and his department helped prevent what could've been a wildfire. With dry grass aplenty around the Manor and Carlyle area, sparks jumping out into fields could've had a scary effect as well. 

"You get these wicked winds, there's not a lot of moisture," Hutton said. "There are lots of dry fuels standing everywhere to be burnt. Extreme caution should always be on everyone's mind."