A fire that likely began in the kitchen caused extensive damage to a St. Davids home on Monday afternoon, though the cause is still unknown.
Firefighters received the call at 2:28 p.m. and were on scene in less than 10 minutes, said Niagara-on-the-Lake Fire Chief Jay Plato.
The blaze was extinguished in just over an hour, with the help all five of NOTL’s fire stations. About 50 firefighters were on scene.
Everyone in the home was outside by the time crews arrived and nobody was injured.
Plato said fire crews arrived to find flames coming through the roof at the back of the house, located at 172 Four Mile Creek Rd.
The fire, which crews arrived to at 2:37 p.m., was under control by 3:51 p.m., said NOTL’s communications co-ordinator Marah Minor in an email.
The onsite investigation is complete, but it could take several weeks to finalize reports and investigate the cause of the fire, which appears to have started in the kitchen, said Minor.
Plato praised the response time of his team.
“Within about 10 minutes of the call, we already had water on the fire,” said Plato, speaking from the scene to The Lake Report.
“We did a really good job of getting it knocked out pretty quickly.”
Firefighters remained on scene until 8:11 p.m., Minor said, making sure there was no further risk of the fire reigniting.
Minor said the blaze caused significant damage to all three levels of the house.
Plato said the insurers will assess whether the home is salvageable. A cost estimate for the damage was unavailable by press time.
“We won’t have that (information) for a while,” said Plato.
While the cause of the fire is unknown, investigators aren’t considering it suspicious, said Minor.
