Fire trucks from three volunteer departments responded to a house fire in Irishtown-Summerside on Friday night in a co-ordinated effort that once again showed just how well they work together.
H.I.S. Fire Rescue, which serves the communities of Hughes Brook and Irishtown Summerside, got the call about the fire at around 11:45 p.m.
H.I.S. fire chief Rick Parsons said the only information they had at the time was it was a house fire on School Lane in the Irishtown part of the north shore community.
While en route from his home at the end of the community nearest to Meadows, he could see the flames coming from the home. The fire was also visible from Corner Brook on the other side of the Bay of Islands.
“And upon responding to the scene, we found the house to be totally engulfed,” he said.
It was then the department activated its mutual aid system with the volunteer fire departments in Meadows and Gillams.
Parsons said they first thought the home may have been occupied, but in minutes of arriving found out from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that the home was vacant.
“Which was a big relief to us.”
At the stage the fire was at, Parsons said no one inside would have survived.
“It was amazing how that house burned so fast.”
Getting to the home was a bit of challenge as it’s located at the top of a narrow steep hill on a gravel road.
The H.I.S. pumper was situated on the hill and behind that the pumper from the Meadows Volunteer Fire Department and two rescue trucks.
More trucks were parked in a neighbouring driveway and another fire truck and rescue truck were further down the road.
Tying into a fire hydrant on the road, Parsons said they used two of the three pumper trucks to fight the fire with manpower from the third pumper.
With Parsons leading as incident commander the crews worked for about six hours to bring the fire down.
Parsons had 16 members on site and another 14 in total responded from Meadows and the Gillams Volunteer Fire Department.
“There were times when you almost had to pull some people back and say ‘you did two cylinders (of compressed air) it’s time to take a break,’” said Parsons.
He said the departments train together and when they team up on a fire they work well together.
“When we respond to calls like this we basically are one department.”
At around noon on Saturday some smoke could be seen coming from the remains of the home and Parsons said it could smolder for days.
He had no idea of what caused the fire, which is under investigation by the RCMP. The home, which was a total loss, was insured.
The Western Star reached out to the owner of the home, however, he said he was not up to commenting.
