Hope Fire Department responded to the first structural fire of 2017 when a Lakeview Crescent home caught fire on Jan. 14.
A total of 17 firefighters responded at about 3:40 p.m., putting out the fire completely at 11 p.m. They returned at 12:30 a.m. to clean up the hot spots.
“One of the calls came from the neighbour and said there’s smoke coming from the house, from the roof,” said fire chief Tom DeSorcy. “We had heavy flames coming through the roof. It was visible when we first arrived on scene.”
A neighbour living across the street confirmed that the fire started slowly, and just as the fire department arrived, the flames got worse.
Firefighters managed to suppress the fire “fairly quickly,” said DeSorcy.
“But it was a stubborn fire due to the construction of the ceiling. We had lots of void spaces where the fire was that we had to physically, for the lack of a better term, chase.”
The home suffered smoke, fire and water damage on the top floor. The basement has suffered water damage. Hence, the home is uninhabitable.
DeSorcy said the property is insured, and while the insurance company has not given their estimate of the loss, DeSorcy estimates it to come in at $300,000 to $400,000 “quite easily.”
No one suffered any injuries due to the fire, whose cause DeSorcy determined as accidental.
DeSorcy said cold conditions challenged firefighters that day, as it caused firefighters to feel cold, slippery conditions resulted in poor footing for firefighters, and equipment to ice up.
“It was a job well done by our dedicated and well-trained volunteer firefighters,” said DeSorcy.