Fire at Camp of the Woods

Here is an email we got from James (the director) at Camp of the Woods. Please pray for all of the staff for wisdom and for Andrea especially for comfort and peace at this difficult time!

Sunday morning our staff went in to church, Bates and my family stayed in Sioux for a church potluck and Andrea stayed in Dryden for a Christmas cantata practice. At around 2:15 to 2:30 both Cheryl, my children and Becky and their children arrive back at camp with in minutes of each other. Johnny and I are still in Sioux for a Deacons meeting. As the ladies arrive at camp smoke is billowing out of Andrea's porch, my boys run for fire extinguishers and empty them into the porch, at this point they realize the fire is to far advanced for the extinguishers to do much good, so between my sons, Cheryl and Becky they drag out the fire pump, chop a hole in the lake, stretch out the hoses and begin to spray water into the porch. Some where in the middle here they make a phone call to Sioux contacting Johnny and I. Around that time Dr. Dahmer, his wife and son drive into to camp to return some equipment they had borrowed. They were a God send, by the time Johnny and I arrive at the scene they have two fire hoses strung out and are spraying the porch area of the house. The fire had moved into the rafters so at that point we ripped the attic vents off and sprayed water into this space. We had contacted the fire company but as we are not in any one companies area no one was willing to come. We had some friends arrive from Sioux to help and one of the individuals knew some one on the Sioux Lookout fire company so they were called and personally requested to come out. The truck arrived around 5:00, but by that time we pretty much had the fire out. Cheryl had contacted Andrea in Dryden she had someone drive her home and arrived around 4:00.
As you can see from the pictures most of the fire damage has been to the entry of the house. The rest of the house has allot of smoke and heat damage. I credit the quick work of Cheryl, my sons and Becky for keeping the fire to what it was. We are sure it started with some type of malfunction with the wood furnace which sits on the porch.
We are going to be going through to see what can be salvaged but on the initial inspection it doesn't look like it will be a whole lot. Andrea did not carry content insurance on her things. Camp had building insurance and the adjusters and agents will be arriving today.
Please continue to pray for Andrea as she works through this. I will keep you posted as to how we can best help her. I have asked her to put together a list of things lost, and will circulate that when it is available.
Thanks for you prayers.
James Esh