Heavy losses sustained in tragic Fifth Line fire

A home valued around $700,000, all of its contents, an attached two car garage, two cars and three high-end motorcycles were completely detroyed by fire yesterday in the Fifth Line, Old Highway 17 area but perhaps the most tragic loss for the home owner was his beloved Doberman Pinscher dog.

"I remember that dog," said Sault Ste. Marie Fire Services Platoon Chief Terry Dubois. "It was a nice dog. I remember seeing it with the owner at his business."

Dubois told SooToday that the owner was fairly distraught and was trying to explain where in the home the sofa was and the basement stairs, telling firefighters that's where the dog would have been.

Firefighters searched the perimeter of the building for tracks or signs that the dog and two cats the owner said were in the home had escaped but found no sign of them.

Almost 24 hours after the fire was believed to have started there are still hot spots, or areas under debris that are still burning, Dubois said, so it's not safe for anyone to try to search the house or the garage.

Both structures were completely consumed.

The roof and floors collapsed.

Dubois estimates the fire started about an hour and a half to two hours before OPP called out Sault Ste. Marie Fire Services at 3:42 p.m. on Friday and it took the fire department about six minutes to find the house.

"It's fairly isolated," Dubois said. "When we arrived the structure was fully involved and flames were through the roof."

It took about three or four minutes for fire crews to get set up and get the fire under control but by that time all they could do was make sure that nothing in the surrounding area caught fire and try to supress the fire because the house and garage were beyond saving.  

Crews worked through the night shuttling water to the scene to first knock down the main fire then extinguish spot fires that are still cropping up.

"We hope to turn it over to the owner later today," said Dubois. 

The cause of the fire has been ruled undetermined accidental and the Fire Marshal's office will not be investigating it further, he said. 

Although the Fire Marshal typically investigates large loss fires (over $500,000) the Fire Marshal decided not to investigate this fire mainly because it's too dangerous to enter the structure and investigate and because there is nothing apparently unusual or suspicous about the fire.

(PHOTO: Firefighters work to douse what is left of a structure in the Fifth Line and Old Highway 17 area on Friday. Kenneth Armstrong/SooToday)