Mother Nature wreaked havoc on the North Renfrew region over the weekend.
Thousands of people were without power for upwards of 24 hours or more after strong winds toppled trees onto hydro wires, sending local fire departments into a flurry of action.
The lights went out around 3:30 pm Friday afternoon.
Deep River firefighters were initially dispatched to the report of downed power lines near the marina, and attended the scene along with police and public works crews.
That’s when the firefighters and police started receiving numerous other calls from dispatch, to reports of downed lines on Alder Crescent, Algonquin Street and McDonald Street.
They were also dispatched to two calls where the downed lines had sparked fires, on Chadwick Drive in the west end of town and Banting Drive, just off the golf course, in the east end of town, and were able to quickly suppress the fires.
That’s about when the Laurentian Hills fire department started receiving numerous calls from dispatch, and firefighters raced up to Moore Lake Road at Rolphton to suppress a fire which had been sparked by a downed line there.
While there, they were also dispatched to similar incidents along Bass Lake Road and Kean Road, off Wylie Road.
Stretched as thinly as they were by that point, the fire department somehow managed to send a crew to help locals in Rapides des Joachims put out a fire at Madore and Souliere.
Things didn’t improve much on Saturday.
The Laurentian Hills fire department was again dispatched to the same two spots they had been the day before at Bass Lake Road and in Swisha, after those fires reignited when power was restored to the lines.
With their trucks running on fumes by that point, firefighters were also dispatched on Saturday to reports downed lines at locations on Wylie Road and Lau-Ren Road.
And, just to top things off, they were also dispatched to a structure fire on Wilson Street in Chalk River, and called on the fire department at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) for mutual aid.
Firefighters from both Laurentian Hills and CNL responded to the scene, where the fire had started in the garage of the Wilson Street home, but by the time they arrived the homeowners, fortunately, had managed to extinguish the fire themselves.
Long-time Laurentian Hills Fire Chief Kevin Waito says it was the busiest couple days of action he can recall in all of his years of service.
“That’s the most calls we ever received in two days,” Waito told the NRT, noting the department got called out six times on Saturday alone, and the last time the department got close to that number was way back in 1984, when they were called out five times in the same day.
Waito also said the fire department was called out to the report of a carbon monoxide alarm going off at a residence on Moores Road, and it was determined the cause was the generator powering the home had been placed too close to the residence, sparking a warning from the fire chief about the proper placement of generators when the power goes off.
Rapides des Joachims Mayor Roger Lafond gave a tip of his hat to the Laurentian Hills firefighters for their quick responses to his municipality over the weekend, as well as the men and women from community who pitched in to help fight the flames, noting the mill in Swisha supplied a lot of extinguishers to aid in those efforts.
There was also a separate fire at kilometre 4 in the ZEC on Saturday, across from the old Bonanza, in which at least five structures were destroyed by the flames and one property owner taken to hospital with burn injuries.
Unconfirmed reports have it that Quebec firefighters initially responded to the scene and contained the fire, but it reignited after their departure.
Further damage was limited thanks to the efforts of locals, who were able to use a backhoe to build a firebreak.