Brock Street blaze extinguished

Two firefighters barely escaped with their lives on Sunday night, when a fire ripped through a Brock Street home and caught the pair in its midst.

David Paxton, the director of training for Thunder Bay Fire and Rescue Service, on Monday said the pair recently completed a firefighter survival training course that might have saved their lives.

“They recognized they were in trouble as well as the officer on the outside who oversaw some of the recent training. He identified they had a problem and were rapidly intervening the situation to send in help and help them find a secondary means of egress,” Paxton said.

According to a release issued by the fire department, the firefighters were on the main floor of the two-storey residence when the blaze broke through, leaving the duo stranded in a thick haze of heavy smoke and intense heat, their hose melted by the flames inside. 

They were forced to make their escape through a kitchen window, as firefighters on the outside attempted to enter the burning building in an attempt to get them out.

Damage inside is extensive, said fire prevention officer Paul Bureau on Monday afternoon, still awaiting clearance to go inside with the structural integrity of the building in question.

Bureau said it was a passerby who phoned in the alarm, with the homeowner at work and away from home at the time the fire broke out around 9 p.m. on Sunday night.

“A neighbour discovered smoke in the area as they were driving by, so they called into 911. Fire crews arrived and there was smoke coming out of the structure. It’s balloon-frame construction, so basically it races from the basement to both levels,” Bureau said.

On Monday the white siding surrounding the window openings of the single-family home were left scorched, the glass long-shattered to allow firefighters to battle the flames. A Christmas wreath on the now yellow and brown front door is blackened, a stark reminder of the fire that only hours before destroyed the inside and all of its contents, but thankfully left no one injured.
It took two hours to get the blaze under control.

The home, said fire officials, is likely a write-off, though clean-up crews were on hand to assess the damage once the OK to enter the premises was given.

The cause of the fire is officially unknown at this time, but fire officials on scene Sunday night said the owner believes it was electrical heaters being used to heat the residence that led to the fire.