A family is recovering from the loss of their home in Schanzenfeld Tuesday night.

Pete Wall explains his son was home alone when the fire started.

Wall's son was in the basement at the time, and heard a noise coming from the main floor. Opening the door to garage to disovering the fire.

"He dialed 911 and ran outside and waited for the fire department to show up," Wall explains, adding firefighters responded within 10 minutes.

In Winkler at the time, Wall says he thought his son was kidding at first, "but it was a fact, so I jumped in my car... I got there and there was flames coming out of the garage roof and a lot of smoke... I watched it go up in flames."

"It's devastating... you always think it's not going to happen to you," he says.

While the family of six is recovery well with the support of friends and family, Wall says walking through the remains of their home Wednesday the emotions hit him.

"There was too much there I could tell what it was, memories of things now charred," he says. "It's a different picture when you see it in person."

The Schanzenfeld location had been their home for 12 years.

In the midst of the tragedy, Wall says Winkler Fire Department was a bright spot.

"The Chief (Richard Paetzold) was very informative, he gave me all the information I needed to know," Wall says, adding another firefighter Chris Friesen offered to search for and collect a number of keepsakes after the fire was out.

"He recovered quite a few items," Wall says.

Now the Wall family, which includes Pete and his wife Lisa, as well as two boys and two girls ages 10-18, is on the search for a temporary home, but plan on rebuilding at the same location.

He also thanked the local community for the outpouring of support.

"You can't put it into words," he says, adding they received multiple offers to stay with friends and neighbours.

"It's phenomenal... we're absolutely grateful to the community, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else."

The remains of the Wall family after a fire Tuesday night