INVERNESS -- The cause of a fire that destroyed a house in Inverness Thursday night will remain undetermined.
Provincial fire marshal Dave Rossiter was on scene while fire fighters from five West Prince departments fought the fire and determined it started upstairs.
Because of the extent of damage, Rossiter said it would not be possible to determine the cause. “It’s not there,” he said in reference to the upstairs section of the house that was lost to the fire.
The house was owned by Angus MacKay and Lori Fraser and had undergone recent renovations.
Fraser was at home when the fire broke out and she and a friend were able to rescue four large dogs.
“They heard a noise upstairs and went up and it was full of smoke,” Tyne Valley fire chief Lowell Palmer related. In the short time it took to get the dogs out the house became engulfed. They escaped without any of their household belongings.
Palmer said fire fighters were already meeting at their fire hall when the fire call was received at 8:40 p.m. so they were able to respond immediately with all four of their trucks.
Flames were already shooting through the roof when the first truck rolled onto the scene, Palmer reported.
Automatic in a structure fire, the Wellington, Lennox Island, O’Leary and West Point fire departments also responded.
The neighbouring departments were on scene for about two hours while the Tyne Valley department remained on scene until after 1 a.m. Highway Two was closed to traffic while the fire-fighting efforts were under way. “We had a lot of water on the road so we had to wait for Highways to come with salt to make sure there were no accidents caused by the icy road,” Palmer explained.
The loss is protected by insurance. Fraser and MacKay were able to find temporary shelter with relatives.
The house rekindled overnight and Tyne Valley responded with one pumper to douse a flare-up shortly after 5 a.m. Friday.
