OLIVER PAIPOONGE -- One wall is all that remains of an Oliver Paipoonge home after it caught fire Tuesday morning.
The driver of a passing vehicle where Highway 130 crosses the Kaministiquia River alerted the area's volunteer fire department at 10:26 a.m. and it took over five truckloads of water to suppress the blaze.
Oliver Paipoonge Fire Department chief Mike Horan said by the time his team arrived, the roof had collapsed and the second floor had fallen into the basement. They fought the fire for nearly an hour and a half before bringing it under control.
Neighbours claimed to have heard explosions in the fire's early stages, a factor Horan attributed to oxygen tanks the home's occupant needed for a medical condition.
Horan suspects no cause will be determined.
"It's too early to tell (the cause) and from what you see, we'll probably never know. It's not suspicious or anything. It was accidental," Horan said.
"We took all the insides out and they're on the front lawn. If it was an electrical circuit or soemthing, we'll never know that now."
