A county firefighter was injured Saturday afternoon battling a massive house fire in Essex that took almost half a day to quell.
Essex Fire Chief Ed Pillon said the inferno at a home on County Road 18 west of the Arner Townline drew in firefighters from Essex, Kingsville and Lakeshore. The blaze gutted the large one-story house, with Pillon pegging an early damage estimate at $500,000.
“Unfortunately one of our firefighters fell through the floor,” said Pillon, speaking to reporters on the scene at a burning home on County Road 18 west of the Arner Townline. The firefighter landed in the basement but was not seriously hurt, though Pillon said he’d have sore bones.
Reached for comment Sunday, Pillon said the injured firefighter was sore and stiff but otherwise in good shape.
He said the first crews hit the scene at 11:45 a.m., but the last hot spots weren’t put out until 11 p.m.
“The hot spots were very hard to get at,” he said, because many were trapped beneath the collapsed roof. Firefighters had to move chunks of the fallen structure to get at the flames, prolonging the battle.
After the injured man’s fall through the floor, firefighters were only able to stand on the floor on the west side of the home, with the east side off limits.
Nearly 50 firefighters had converged on the scene by 2 p.m.
Firefighters were at the time fighting to keep the flames from spreading to the trees surrounding the home, but Pillon said Saturday it was tough going thanks to heavy snowfall. He said the home’s great distance from the road — 500 feet — forced crews to shuttle water up the long driveway in three trucks.
The single-lane driveway, with its limited space for turning around, forced crews to back their fire trucks in towards the house.
He said when firefighters first arrived they saw smoke showing. When they went inside they found the kitchen and living room ablaze.
The flames eventually leaped into the attic.
Pillon said on top of about 30 Essex firefighters, crews were summoned from Kingsville and Lakeshore to help out.
The homeowners said they were too distraught to comment.
Pillon said nobody was home when the blaze broke out. It was discovered when the family returned home to find smoke flowing from the building.
In the fire’s aftermath, he said the cause had yet to be determined. A fire inspector was on scene Sunday and was set to return Monday along with heavy equipment for combing through the rubble.
“We had a lot of tired, cold and wet firefighters going into this battle, but they did a tremendous job,” Pillon said.
