CENTRE WELLINGTON – The Centre Wellington fire department had a busy long weekend with two structure fires less than 48 hours apart.
In the early morning of Sept. 7, the Fergus and Elora fire stations, along with a tanker from Arthur, responded to a structure fire on Sideroad 20 at Jones Baseline in Centre Wellington.
“I believe it was a lightning strike into a residential home that started the outside of the house on fire and then breached into the cavity above the porch,” said Centre Wellington deputy fire chief Tom Mulvey.
“We got it stopped in the cavity of the porch so it did some damage to the outside of the home and the attic space in the porch but we were able to knock it down before it got inside the house.”
About 30 firefighters responded to the call at 2:50am and were done by 7am.
The residents heard the lightning but, because it’s so unlikely for lightning to strike a house, did not get up until they heard smoke alarms going off.
“So he got out of bed, went down and went outside and the outside of his house was on fire,” Mulvey said.
“So he tried to use a garden hose and called us.”
Because houses are grounded, being struck by lightning is extremely rare.
“It doesn’t usually happen, but lightning strikes you can’t predict and if they happen to hit your house, they can cause significant damage electronically and they can start fires but there’s really nothing else you can do about that,” he said.
Mulvey said there was significant damage to the outside of the house and the porch, but because the house is made of logs, he was unable give a damage estimate.
Sept. 5
The Elora and Fergus fire stations responded to a shed fire call at about 5:30pm on Sept. 5 and attended the location near the Wellington Road 18 and 8th Line intersection southwest of Salem.
“On arrival we found a shed, about 20-by-40, fully involved,” said Centre Wellington Fire Chief Brad Patton.
“Fire was quickly extinguished.”
The 22 firefighters were on scene for about two and a half hours.
Even though the walls and roof of the shed were still standing, Patton said the building would need to be demolished.
“We suspect that the origin of the fire was in a late model Gator that was stored in the barn,” Patton said.
No one was injured and the fire did not spread further than the shed.
Patton estimated the fire caused about $75,000 worth of damage.
Submitted photos
