Burns Lake woman describes close call during Econo Lodge blaze

A Burns Lake woman and her boyfriend are lucky to be alive following last week’s Econo Lodge Fire that killed three people.

Cheyenne Wingo stated they were at the motel for four days with the goal of trying to secure a place in PG.

Wingo told MyPGNow.com her boyfriend described crackling sounds like popcorn along with some screaming from nearby suites.

“He started yelling at me to get up and quickly get dressed to get out of the there and I grabbed the first thing I saw, which was my dress, I also grabbed my purse, my Dad’s truck keys and we both ran to the door, picked up our sandals and ran out.”

To make matters more stressful, Wingo is also 31 weeks pregnant.

“That was my main concern was thinking about my baby and getting out of there right away. It’s not good to run when you are pregnant but I ran really fast and just the stress of it all ended up giving me small contractions.”

She added they lost personal items like their TV, clothes, gaming system along with their daughter’s ultrasound pictures.

Wingo mentioned that even though both of them came out of the incident physically unharmed, they are still a little rattled from the experience.

“We are OK now but we are still a little bit shook about it, just the fact that three people are dead and we’re happy to be alive but it is really sad hearing that. A lot of us feel really bad about it because there were people banging on the nearest doors but couldn’t stick around as the fire was too big and spreading too fast.”

“Red Cross has given us food vouchers. I am from the Lake Babine Nation in Burns Lake and a lot of them are trying to help as well with fundraising, which is really nice.”

The Prince George RCMP, local fire crews, and the BC Coroners Service are all investigating the blaze.

Emergency crews are also looking to the public for any dashcam footage, pictures, and any surveillance images encompassing a two-block radius from where the fire took place.