The Tache Fire Department responded to a house fire just west of Lorette Saturday evening.
Fire Chief Allan Rau says a passerby noticed smoke coming out of the attic of a home and called 911 around 8:30 p.m.
“When we arrived, we saw that the main floor was fully engulfed, and the fire was coming through the attic. We knocked it down, but because of the difficulty of it, we're continuing to work at it right now, we're using a backhoe to pull some of the front exterior walls off because we're unable to get inside with personnel.”
Rau says the structure itself is still standing with the exception of the roof which is partially caved in.
He notes, “There's a lot of stuff inside the home which is causing us difficulty in extinguishing it. That's why we want to tear one of the front walls off and pull that stuff that's in there out.”
Fortunately, Rau says the homeowner was away at the time of the fire and nobody was hurt in the blaze.
As for the cause, Rau says he has a pretty good idea but isn’t 100 per cent confident.
“I did speak with the OFC (Office of the Fire Commissioner), they pretty much concurred with my assumptions, but we want to make sure that we can get in there and take a good look to confirm what I am thinking.”
As of 11:50 p.m. Saturday, Rau says he still expects his crews to be on scene for a couple more hours, making sure the fire is fully extinguished.
This comes after a busy week for the Tache Fire Department. Rau notes “We had a crew out in the Whiteshell yesterday, they were a bit tired, and we were out in Woodridge the night before, but they seemed to be well rested and nice and cool now.”