On Jan. 8, shortly after 6 p.m., Cochrane, Rocky View and Redwood Meadows Fire Services were called to the LJ Ranch on Towers Trail, just south of Cochrane to find a home fully engulfed in flames.
Rocky View County Fire Services District Chief Dax Huba said the home was fully engulfed when they arrived on scene with everyone already evacuated from the building.
“The homeowner called 9-1-1 at approximately 6 p.m. to report a fire at the back of the house. There was one woman who managed to get herself out of the home,” said Huba.
As crews battled through the night to control the blaze, the plan, said Huba, was to contain and manage as best they could.
“Crews were dispatched and immediately went to fire attack to try and extinguish the blaze, but the house was considered fully involved by the time water crews and tertiary crews arrived,” Huba said.
Huba said the investigation has ruled the fire was the result of a cooking accident and damages are estimated at more than $450,000.
LJ Ranch is home to Lindsay and Joy Eklund, longtime Cochrane-area residents and cattle farmers and to the Cochrane Community Midwives.
The night of the fire, Joy West-Eklund, who only a year-and-a-half earlier suffered a broken back and neck after falling from the height of their cabin window, was home alone, still recovering and for the most part bound to a wheelchair.
But she still made it out safe.
By 9:30 p.m. the home was completely gone.
The Eklunds watched championship buckles, wine collections and more importantly, all of their contacts for midwives and their beef sales go up in flames.
“My son Travis has been on Facebook and put word out that we need to regain those contacts,” said Lindsay Eklund.
“We want people to know that we have the beef, but we need our customers to contact us so we can get the product out.”
Life on the ranch hasn’t stopped. It’s been tough since the fire, but they’ve now restored the water and gas hookups for the basics of farm life.
“When Joy broke her neck and back and we went through a year of hell, as tragic as this fire is, and it’s really tragic,” Lindsay said, “it pails in comparison to not losing my wife.”
“It’s hard to lose all the things we spent our lives either earning, or winning, or building, but the fact that Joy was in the house when the fire started and she still managed to get into a wheelchair and escape is what we focus on.”
With the family shaken but still all in one piece, the community has been reaching out to not only Lindsay, but his son Travis Eklund, with a Facebook page that has now been created to help the family.
“We’re here, we’ll survive, it’ll take some years, but we’ll put this back together,” said Lindsay. “We’d like if all customers past and present would please give us a call, we’ve lost all your information and need to get that back.”
To help or find updates, visit Coming Together For Lindsay and Joy Eklund on Facebook. You could also contact the Eklund family through Travis at [email protected] or Lindsay at 403-861-4697 or [email protected]
