He stood back from the scene as firefighters fought to extinguish a fire consuming his house, but there was no saving it.
He was working for a roofing and siding company just up the road from where his house is located on East River East Side Road on Friday, and when he came back from lunch he saw smoke from the highway. “It was just black,” he said. “Something was burning hard.”
Then he found out it was his place. “My heart went in my mouth, and I hoped that my wife was not home. There it was – gone.”
He found out a while later that his wife Sherry wasn’t home at the time.
“I’m just upset that we lost all our personal aspects. A building can be replaced, but it’s all the things you collect over your life and cherish. You don’t think about them until they’re gone.”
Firefighters from five departments – Plymouth, New Glasgow, Thorburn, Westville and Eureka – worked for about two hours to put out the fire that began around noon.
As dozens of firefighters battled the blaze, whipped up by high winds, smoke enveloped the scene. At times, the smoke was so thick it was difficult to see the community’s former convenience store, located next door, which had its siding melted off the nearest side.
John Davison of the Plymouth Fire Department said when firefighters arrived on the scene flames were coming out of a number of windows. “There was a lot of heat and a lot of black smoke.”
The two-storey house, built in 1913, was destroyed by the fire. The roof and chimney collapsed during the blaze, and an excavator knocked down the remaining standing walls later in the afternoon. Davison said the walls were brought down for safety reasons.
“You always hope you can save it,” he said. “We tried to, but when there’s that much fire involved…”
The cause of the fire is unknown.
He stood back from the scene as firefighters fought to extinguish a fire consuming his house, but there was no saving it.
He was working for a roofing and siding company just up the road from where his house is located on East River East Side Road on Friday, and when he came back from lunch he saw smoke from the highway. “It was just black,” he said. “Something was burning hard.”
Then he found out it was his place. “My heart went in my mouth, and I hoped that my wife was not home. There it was – gone.”
He found out a while later that his wife Sherry wasn’t home at the time.
“I’m just upset that we lost all our personal aspects. A building can be replaced, but it’s all the things you collect over your life and cherish. You don’t think about them until they’re gone.”
Firefighters from five departments – Plymouth, New Glasgow, Thorburn, Westville and Eureka – worked for about two hours to put out the fire that began around noon.
As dozens of firefighters battled the blaze, whipped up by high winds, smoke enveloped the scene. At times, the smoke was so thick it was difficult to see the community’s former convenience store, located next door, which had its siding melted off the nearest side.
John Davison of the Plymouth Fire Department said when firefighters arrived on the scene flames were coming out of a number of windows. “There was a lot of heat and a lot of black smoke.”
The two-storey house, built in 1913, was destroyed by the fire. The roof and chimney collapsed during the blaze, and an excavator knocked down the remaining standing walls later in the afternoon. Davison said the walls were brought down for safety reasons.
“You always hope you can save it,” he said. “We tried to, but when there’s that much fire involved…”
The cause of the fire is unknown.
