Porsche lost in fire
Wilmot man loses antique car in carriage house fire
Kent Robinson’s mint 1984 Porsche is toast. Literally.
It went up in smoke and flames along with antiques, collectibles, and family memorabilia when the old carriage house, the last remnant of Cook farm in Wilmot, Annapolis County, caught fire mid-morning Thursday.
Robinson was in the house with his dog Jill when he saw smoke billowing past his window — the same window that would later crack from the heat of the fire.
Robinson’s first reaction was to get the dog out of the house and safe, call 911, and contact his partner Shannon, who was at work.
He’d gone out to the carriage house earlier to start the Porsche, something he did every two or three weeks in the winter. He doesn’t know if there is any connection between that and the fire. But having been in the insurance business himself for many years he said he wasn’t going to speculate. He’d let the firefighters do their job.
Chief Watson Armstrong of the Kingston fire department, said the building was totally involved when he arrived, and the first concern was the nearby house — about 10 metres away. Three other fire departments helped fight the fire.
Highway 1 was down to one lane for several hours as fire trucks took up positions to fight the blaze on the corner of Highway 1 and Cook Avenue. Traffic at times was backed up half a kilometre.
Robinson said when they moved back home from Calgary 11 years ago, the house wasn’t big enough for everything they brought with them, so they stored a lot of their belongings in the upstairs of the carriage house.
The car and the carriage house were insured.