HARDWOOD LANDS: A mid-morning fire in Hardwood Lands on April 9 caused extensive damage to a garage, with a shortage of firefighters initially and intense heat proving obstacles for crews on scene.
East Hants fire departments from Milford; Shubenacadie; Nine Mile River; Lantz; Elmsdale; Enfield; Stewiacke; and Rawdon, were paged shortly before 10 a.m. to the 200 block of MacDonald Road for a working attached garage fire. EHS; East Hants RCMP for traffic control; and N.S. Power also were requested.
The eight fire departments accounted for approximately 30 firefighters, who were on scene until about 3 p.m. before they were back in service. The fill site was setup at the pond by the Milford fire hall.
Fire trucks lined up the gravel road, which goes down adjacent to Scothorn’s, as crews worked on scene. There was little traffic, except for a couple friends of the homeowner who came to see if they could check on their friend.
The vehicles that came to check turned around as the scene was quite active with fire trucks coming and going.
Ed Moxsom, chief with Milford fire, was the Incident Commander on scene. He said it was unknown if anyone was home at the time of the fire, but there were no injuries to anyone involved.
He explained how crews attacked the garage fire, which was attached to the home.
“It was a defensive attack on the garage, before we moved into an interior attack on the structure,” said Moxsom.
While the structure remains standing, it’s believed that what’s not seen from the outside may show how brutal the fire was.
“There was extensive damage to the contents and structure,” said Moxsom.
With it being the daytime, garnering the manpower required proved a hurdle at the start of the call.
“We had difficulty getting manpower initially due to it being a daytime call, and there was intense heat from the fire as well,” he said.
Moxsom said the cause of the fire in undetermined.
Following the fire, Clean Heroes was dispatched to Elmsdale Fire Hall to to perform Post Incident Decon for all departments involved in the fire.
