With clouds of black smoke billowing into the sky and across the Town of Arnprior, the Friday, March 15th Hogan Drive house fire was reported a number of times by members of the community.
The single-family McNab-Braeside home went up quickly, says McNab-Braeside Fire Chief Jeff Crawford, and both the township and town fire departments were called to the scene around 5:30 p.m.
About 20 township firefighters and five trucks arrived to find the house, a new-build bungalow, fully involved.
After ascertaining that no one was inside the house, the attack on the fire began.
“Fires of this nature we don’t send anybody inside because it’s too dangerous, we don’t put anybody at risk by sending them inside. We just surround it and put water on it from the outside,” said Crawford.
Co-operation from the Arnprior Fire Department and Chief Rick Desarmia, including permitting the use of a nearby hydrant, helped immensely and was much appreciated, said Crawford.
“By using the nearby hydrant, we were able to keep a lot of water on it for an extended period of time,” he said.
Firefighters had water on the fire very quickly, and deemed it under control at 8:10 p.m. At that time, crews called in the township backhoe to tear down the walls so the fire department could find hotspots and fully extinguish the fire.
The specifics of the fire added a few challenges.
“With a fire this far advanced and with the new construction – everything made out of oriented strandboard – those fires burn very hot and very fast and they give off a thick, black toxic smoke and the floor collapses early so we can’t get inside to do a thorough investigation as to where the fire may have started but it appears to have started in the basement,” said Crawford.
Firefighters were on scene until just after 1 a.m.
Numerous photos and reports from members of the public were posted on social media, some drawing criticism from other citizens.
“We would urge people to refrain from that, especially when it is slowing down access for fire trucks and firefighters to get to the scene and for our tanker shuttles back and forth. It’s imperative that we get as much water as we can on the fire as quickly as we can and if people are driving by plugging up the roads that makes it hard for us,” said Crawford.
A GoFundMe campaign raising funds for the affected family has raised more than $13,000.
By Sherry Haaima; edited by Rick Stow