Miami Fire Chief James Oakes described a call that came in Saturday night of a fire in the community.
“It was about 8:30 to a quarter to nine and in the evening, we had a report of a structure fire in town, and we responded. A garage had started on fire, and it went to a neighbouring house. The heavy winds were a big factor in the fire.”
Miami, which is just over 80 kilometers directly south of Portage, had a strong gusting wind for most of the day and Oakes added the fire required help from neighbouring fire departments.
"Miami Fire responded as well as Roland Fire and Carmen-Dufferin Fire also came in to assist us. All the homeowners, everybody, got out safely. There were no injuries during the incident. So, that was good.”
He couldn’t predict the outcome without the high wind but commented on its impact.
“The wind definitely played a factor for sure. That's tough to say if it would have been as bad or not, but it definitely gave us some pretty big challenges, that's for sure. With heavy wind like that. We're always looking at other exposures and neighbouring buildings, and making sure nothing else gets exposed to the fire.”
Oakes said an investigation will determine the cause of the fire and thanked two farmers who brought water with their water trucks to assist with the efforts, and to Miami Variety for bringing food and coffee to the scene.
