House fire in Marshalltown

By Jonathan Riley

DIGBY COURIER

NovaNewsNow.com

A newly installed smoke alarm helped a local senior escape his burning home.

Nivens Wagner, 93, was eating lunch in the front room of his two-storey home in Marshalltown about noon on Friday, Jan. 11.

When the alarm went off he discovered the kitchen, at the back of the house was on fire.

“He got out of there, thankfully,” said his son Clarence Wagner at the scene. “But then he saw it was too far to walk to my house and he was thinking about going back in for his (car)keys.”

About then someone driving by called 911 and drove Nivens to his son’s home just a short distance down the road.

“He’s doing better than expected,” said Clarence.

Hillgrove dispatched the Digby fire department at 12:18 p.m. and after making their way through the ferry traffic, they arrived at 540 Marshalltown Back Road at 12:30 p.m.

The hundred plus year old home was fully shrouded in the smoke that billowed from eave and crack in the siding – even from under the flashing around the chimney.

“Black, black smoke like that means it was burning real well,” says lieutenant Jeff Van Tassel, driver of the first truck on scene. “There was a lot of fire in there.”

Flames had already erupted through the back wall and porch near the kitchen, where it is believed Wagner had left a dishtowel on the stove.

Digby asked for assistance from Bear River, Smith’s Cove and Brighton Barton fire departments who immediately began ferrying water to the remote location.

Despite this help the firefighters did run out of water for about five minutes. During that time the flames, which had been “knocked down”, erupted back up through the roof.

Once they had water, the crews quickly knocked the flames back down and then began the tedious task of chasing the fire through the inner wall spaces and the collapsed floors.

Digby returned to station at 4:30 p.m., washed the trucks down, cleaned off their equipment only to be called out again at 5:40 p.m.

They again searched for hotspots in the walls and roof, this time working in the freezing rain and dark. They were back at station by 6:30.

The house was insured.



More photos in next story:

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