Neighbours of the Newmarket house destroyed in a blaze yesterday afternoon are lauding firefighters for their quick response.
James Ho said he was working on the second floor of his home next door when he saw huge plumes of smoke. He ran out the door to see his neighbour’s car engulfed in flames.
With the possibility of the fire spreading, he ran inside to grab everything important and his cat, took his car out of his garage and drove it away.
Fortunately, he said the fire only singed the upper part of his home, but the quick actions of Central York Fire Services crews kept the blaze from spreading further, while working through the extreme heat of the day.
“My brain was kind of like blank,” he said of his emotions as he fled his home. “I just hoped it (wouldn't) cause very severe danger and damage. But it's fortunate that no one got injured.”
“It’s a tragedy,” he added. “My neighbour is definitely going to go through some bad times having to think about how to fix all this stuff.”
He said many neighbours have come by to check on him.
“We have a lot of very good and very kind-hearted neighbours,” he said.
Asher Alile, who lives across from the home, said he had a late night and awoke to the sounds of the fire, with popping tires and his house shaking as his family ran around in response to it.
“I just heard the word fire, so I went outside to check, and there was just a huge plume,” he said. “Pretty serious … That’s pretty scary. (My neighbour's) whole life was upended suddenly.”
CYFS has confirmed the home is uninhabitable until reconstruction.
With a heat wave gripping York Region, the fire department said that one firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion on the scene by paramedics, but released and returned to their crew.
CYFS deployed six fire trucks, 25 firefighters, one chief officer and one senior officer, and worked in collaboration with York Regional Police, York Region Paramedic Services and local utilities, the incident report said.
The garage is the second most common area of origin for residential fires, in part due to the increasing number of electronic devices stored there, alongside flammable liquids and materials.
“In the case of a garage fire, these may not be detected by the mandatory alarms inside the home,” chief fire prevention officer Ryan Schell said, recommending that residents consider installing a heat alarm in garages and kitchens.”