Firefighters battle flames and wind at Brazil Lake Road house fire on Monday

By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

Firefighters didn’t just have to battle flames and smoke at a house fire in Brazil Lake on Monday afternoon. High winds were also a factor they had to contend with as they tried to save as much of the home as possible.

Although at the end of their efforts some of the structure was still standing, the inside of the Brazil Lake Road house was gutted and all that remained of the back end of the home was charred rubble.

The home was owned by Glendon and Bev Hanf.

“The wind was quite a factor. It kept blowing the fire up into the eaves and it was hard to get at,” Valley and District fire chief Neil Nicholl said the following morning.

“The fire started from the back of the building and worked towards the front, the wind was blowing it towards the front.”

Nicholl said there were no injuries, although he speculated the outcome might have been different had it not been for a passerby who noticed the fire. The homeowners were inside the home when the fire started.

Nicholl said Tuesday morning that while they know the vicinity in which the fire started, they were still uncertain as to the cause.

The fire call came in shortly after 2 p.m. on March 17. The majority of fire trucks had left by 5:30 p.m., although one remained on the scene late into the night in case the fire sparked up again.

A mutual aid call was made to the Lakes and District and Carleton volunteer fire departments, which assisted with running water to the scene.

“We went to Ohio to get water from the hydrant,” Nicholl said. “Sometimes it’s easier to get water out of a hydrant than to siphon it out of a lake because some of the lakes are frozen over and hard to get at.”

Nova Scotia Power was also called to the scene to cut the power.

“We always call them to cut the power because we hate to put water on a house with power on it,” Nicoll said.

Meanwhile people in the community have already been asking what they can do to help the couple who have been displaced from their home Nicholl said.

“The community is starting to pull together already,” he said. “I’ve had several phone calls from people wondering what they can do to help.”