SOUTH MOUNTAIN – A late 19th century home a few kilometers from South Mountain has been destroyed by fire.
The fire started around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in a two-storey wood-framed house on Lough Road, between Nelson Road and Cameron Road.
In an interview with Cornwall Newswatch, Ray Sherrer, fire chief for the Mountain division of the North Dundas Fire Department, says the 1890s home was fully involved when they arrived.
“We have no idea how it started. It went very fast. There was nothing really we could do…it was totally engulfed by the time we got there,” Sherrer said.
The chief says they went on a defensive attack to protect other buildings but the wind was in their favour, keeping the flames away from other structures. “The way the wind was blowing, we didn’t have any concern for exposures…it just took the house.”
The homeowner was home at the time of the fire.
Sherrer says the building is a total loss.
“We actually brought in a hi-hoe to pull the tin, because it had tin siding. Battling the heat, not just the heat from the fire, the heat of yesterday, we brought in a hi-hoe to pull tin away. By the time it was done, there was nothing. There’s no other way to describe it, there’s nothing left,” he told CNW.
Sherrer says their township protocol is for all four stations – Mountain, Winchester, Morewood and Chesterville – to respond to a structure fire. There were roughly 60 North Dundas firefighters on the scene.
South Dundas Fire and Emergency Services also provided water through mutual aid from its Iroquois and Williamsburg stations.
There were no injuries.
Firefighters wrapped up at the scene about five hours later, around 7:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.