Quick-thinking neighbours help thwart fire in Fergus

FERGUS – Centre Wellington firefighters were able to extinguish a garage fire before it spread to the house, thanks to some quick-thinking neighbours.

Deputy fire chief Jonathan Karn said a 911 call came in around 8:30 pm on Nov. 23 reporting a fire in the garage of a home on Edminston Drive, in the new Fergus subdivision off Beatty Line.

Karn said the homeowner called it in and was able to get herself and her children out of the house before firefighters arrived.

Both Fergus and Elora stations responded and found two neighbours spraying the fire with garden hoses.

“That kept the fire knocked down,” Karn said, adding firefighters moved the neighbours to a safer spot and took over from there.

The homeowner had recently moved, and the garage mainly contained boxes Karn said – some empty and some yet to be unpacked.

He said the fire has been deemed accidental, but the cause is undetermined.

“We know the area of origin and we feel it was something in a garbage bag that started the fire,” Karn said, noting curbside garbage pickup has not yet started in the neighbourhood.

"We don't know for sure though. The fire was involved enough that everything was burned."

About 30 firefighters attended from the two stations, “but we didn’t end up needing everybody and we did release some early,” Karn said.

The scene was cleared in two and a half hours, he said.