A weekend fire on Churchill Crescent caused $300,000 in damage to a home and another $100,000 to a nearby transport truck.
Centre Wellington Fire Chief Brad Patton said the call came in at about 9:30pm on Dec. 6. Shortly thereafter, firefighters arrived at a fully-involved structure fire at 22 Churchill Crescent.
Neighbours spotted flames emerging from the northwest corner of the home.
“When we arrived on scene, we met several bystanders who thought the home was occupied,” said Patton. As a result “we changed our game plan and got crews into the house to search while others knocked down the fire.”
It turned out no one was inside the house at the time, he added.
“Things went very well in response time by the fire department,” Patton said. “It was a quick knockdown of the fire and the house was empty, which we were very thankful for.”
He said the estimated combined damage was $400,000; $300,000 to replace the house and $100,000 for the Kenworth tractor trailer in the driveway.
Patton explained there was a lot of interior damage to the home and he noted the owner had just finished rebuilding the truck.
The Elora and Fergus stations responded to the blaze with at least 30 firefighters on the scene over about three hours.
“We believe the fire began in the basement ceiling and was electrical in nature,” Patton said. “As always, we encourage residents to have a working smoke detector on each floor. It is the law.”
Combine fire
Two days later, on Dec. 8, local firefighters were on the scene of an afternoon combine fire north of Fergus on Sideroad 15. “While we were responding, you could see the heavy black smoke from the Fergus area so we dispatched an additional tanker from Elora,” said Patton. “When we arrived on scene we concentrated our efforts on saving the head of the combine which is the front piece with an estimated value of $50,000.” Patton estimated the damage to the older model combine at $110,000 to $130,000, noting, “It’s a write-off.” Firefighters were on the scene for about two hours.
Corn dryer fire
On Dec. 9 shortly before 8am, Elora and Fergus firefighters received a call regarding the same property – this time the fire was in a dryer silo.
Fire crews removed the compacted corn with the aid of the farmer and his tractor. Lost was $10,000 to $15,000 worth of corn.
