‘It couldn’t be saved’
Morning blaze destroys Yarmouth County garage and some vehicles, while also leading to environmental concerns
A routine business day turned into a devasting one instead for a Yarmouth County business that was destroyed by fire the morning of April 14.
At times thick, toxic smoke blanketed the sky as Foster Auto Sales Ltd. in Dayton, Yarmouth County, was engulfed in flame.
As firefighters battled the blaze at the business – a used car dealership that also carries out mechanical work on vehicles – some of those associated with the business and bystanders pushed some of the customer vehicles on the lot away from the building and damaging flames.
However, vehicles that were inside the bays of the garage were destroyed.
In addition to attacking the fire, there were also environmental concerns as firefighters were also kept busy ensuring that no oil and other contaminants entered nearby Lake Milo because of water runoff.
Business owner Brian Foster said it was a sad and terrible day for the business as he described what had happened.
“We had a car in the garage that had a gas leak,” he said about the work that was happening that morning. “When we lifted the hoist up, I don’t know if it was a spark or fume in the garage, it just burst into flames.”
There were three people on the scene at the time – Foster, an employee and one of Foster’s friends.
“We took the fire extinguishers that we had, but we couldn’t put it out,” he said, saying everyone did get out safely as the fire quickly
spread. “We just ran out.”
For decades this business had been part of the Daytonarea commercial fabric. An iron bench with the word ‘welcome’ on it sat outside the front door.
“I’ve been here for 20 years,” said Foster. “It used to be a service station, and then it was closed up for 15 years until I bought it.”
Foster used to be a lobster fisherman but he had back issues, requiring surgery, so he opted for a job on land instead of at sea. Because he was a mechanic by trade, the decision was made to purchase the garage and to start selling vehicles.
He said he and his wife are employed by the business, along with one mechanic.
There were even some improvements planned. “I had new doors on order for the garage,” Foster said, although he also noted that for the last six months he hadn’t been able to purchase as many cars for resale at the businesses. Supply had been harder to come by, likely because of the COVID pandemic.
Yarmouth Fire Department Chief Mike Deveau said they were called to the scene around 8:30 a.m.
“When we arrived on scene there was heavy fire. The entire building was fully engulfed. It was so involved we quickly switched to a more defensive attack,” he said. “We put some foam in the outset to try and knock it down but we were just unsuccessful, there was too much fire.”
He said it was determined that they had to be careful with the amount of water they were using on the building – which they knew couldn’t be saved – because it could create runoff that would send oil and other contaminants into nearby Lake Milo, which is both a popular recreational lake and a habitat for fish and birds.
Deveau said they had to be mindful of any potential environmental harm.
“We had to kind of balance the amount of water we used,” he said. “We did our best to mitigate things as best we could. We did some dyking and damming, the town came with a sand truck. The Department of Environment was contacted. And we requested Robicheau’s Pumping Service to the scene.”
While at the scene that morning, Deveau said their efforts were appearing to be successful as no oil sheen was being seen on the lake.
The Yarmouth, Port Maitland
and Lake Vaughn and Lakes and District fire departments responded to the fire. Chief Deveau said these types of fires carry a significant safety risk as garages are full of things that can cause toxic fumes and smoke. At times, bystanders were being moved further back as the smoke blanketed the area. Loud popping noises could also be heard coming from the building.
Another challenge was the time of day, coming at a time when many volunteer firefighters were at work or arriving at work; coupled with the fact this is also a fishing community, which has an impact on volunteer firefighter numbers.
It’s part of the reason why the ongoing recruitment of volunteer firefighters is so important for fire departments.
“It’s challenging to get volunteers to be able to leave their places of work, it’s how they make a living. It’s a balance for all of these people,” noted Deveau. “The town of Yarmouth and myself, we are going to start doing our best to engage employers, to help create a balance so they understand the need – not that employers don’t – but we want to do our best to ensure that when there’s a call we have the manpower we need.”
Still, even more firefighters likely wouldn’t have made a difference this time.
“On arrival we very quickly made the decision that the building was going to be a loss…so it was more of a defensive attack from the onset,” Deveau said.
Added Brian Foster, as he watched his business going up in flames, “It didn’t matter if there were 300 firefighters here, it couldn’t be saved.”