Mother-daughter-duo details events leading up to Thursday's fire

Lee Sing and her daughter had to live through a traumatic experience on Thursday night, as they were inside Dollar Tree moments before it started on fire.  

She was inside the store shopping for her daughter's birthday party and then started to smell smoke and knew that something wasn’t right.  

“We walked around, looked, and saw there was smoke in the one aisle,” says Sing. “There was another gentleman there, so he grabbed a fire extinguisher and went over there and said I think I got it out, I don’t know what happened, and then all of a sudden said I don’t have it out.” 

After multiple attempts to extinguish the fire, the group could not put it out and the blaze really took off. 

“The flames came up and went up the shelving and up towards the roof and we could not put it out at all. We couldn’t get enough fire extinguishers to keep going and it was getting really smokey and the flames were getting quite large, so everyone decided to leave. It went so fast, and I’ve never seen anything like it.” 

After electing to evacuate, Sing, her daughter, and the others in the store made their way outside to protect themselves from the blaze.  

When outside Sing found out that there was still someone left in the building. She and a gentleman went back inside to find the remaining occupant still inside the building.  

“I just started yelling for her and kept saying you need to get out, where are you? I could hear her in the back, and she kept saying I’m coming, I’m coming, I can’t see. She did come to the front and got out as well. It was only a matter of minutes and the fire trucks arrived and the building went up so fast.” 

Luckily, Sing, her daughter, and everyone inside was not injured. In saying that, Sing’s daughter was afraid that her birthday cursed the store.  

“She said my birthday curse ruined the dollar store.” 

Though this experience was traumatic for both of them, she used it as a learning tool for her daughter on what to do in the event of a fire.  

“If there is ever a fire at the house that you go and get outside, you don’t wait for us, you don't go after your dog, or try and get your dolley. You go outside and get away from the building because I said did you see how fast this happened.” 

As of Friday morning, it has not been determined what or how the fire started. The Moose Jaw Fire Department confirmed that their fire investigator will be doing a full walk-through of the structure to determine the cause of the fire.