Three escape blaze
A faulty chimney is blamed in a Westmount Road house fire
KITCHENER — A faulty chimney is being blamed for a three-alarm fire that caused $300,000 to $400,000 in damage to a home in Westmount on Saturday afternoon.
The residents in the bungalow at 711 Westmount Rd. W. had lit a fire in their wood-burning fireplace, but didn’t notice it had spread, said Jeff Noble, an assistant platoon chief with the Kitchener Fire Department.
A passerby noticed smoke coming from the roof and alerted the occupants just before 2 p.m. All three occupants — a husband and wife and their grown son — were able to leave the house unharmed.
The fire department arrived within three or four minutes but the roof of the house was fully ablaze, Noble said.
Firefighters from three stations attacked the blaze. The fire was contained within a couple of hours.
Although damage was clearly evident from outside the home — a caved-in, smouldering roof and strips of soot-stained siding hanging over the front porch — Noble said the damage was mainly contained between the roof and a false roof installed below it.
Preliminary indications are that the fire started in the chimney and quickly spread to the roof, likely because of a poorly-maintained chimney.
Although the home had been undergoing renovations, and debris from the work had been piled on the porch, the fire didn’t appear to be related to the renovations, the fire department said.
Noble said it’s important to have wood-burning fireplaces and chimneys regularly inspected and cleaned once a year.
“They said they had a fire in the fireplace last week and there was no indication of a problem,” Noble said.
“If a wood-burning fireplace isn’t maintained properly, this can happen …
“The creosote can build up in the chimney if you don’t burn the fire hot enough.”
CTV camera operator Brandon Bax was at the scene even before firefighters. He was driving down Westmount and noticed the smoke.
“It was a lot of smoke. The homeowners were out and some neighbours were helping them, making sure everybody was out, so I got my camera out.”
Neighbour Greg Shepherd could smell the fire even before he saw it as he drove down Westmount.
He saw flames about half a metre high emerging from the roof and a lot of smoke. “The black smoke was incredible, just blowing across the neighbourhood,” he said.
He expressed relief that the residents were unharmed, but just shook his head as he looked at the blackened house with its sunken roof.
“It’s pretty sad.”