Brenda Arnett said that she was devastated to see her parents, Ken and Gladys Marsh’s home in flames Friday morning.
“I have so many wonderful memories of this place,” said Arnett, adding that the only blessing in the situation is that her parents were not at home when the fire started.
The Ashmont Fire Department received a call at approximately 10:30 a.m. Friday morning from a second party, as the owners were not at home at the time, reported Fire Chief Joey Duperron, from Ashmont.
“When we arrived on scene, the building was fully involved and smoke was coming out of the (eavestroughing),” he said on scene after the fire was contained. Firefighters were continuing to work at the time to cool off the hotspots so the fire didn’t restart.
The first team to arrive on scene attempted to enter the northeast corner but were turned back by the ceiling collapsing. “Then we went onto a full on exterior attack,” explained Duperron.
The house was an old building, very well built, which presented some challenges to firefighters. “That’s why we are working a lot with the ladders and going from the top,” said Duperron. “Some of these older houses are difficult to fight just because they are so well built.”
Although firefighters had not yet been able to access the basement, Duperron felt that the building is likely a write off because the main floor was fully involved.
Tanker trucks were called in from the Town of St. Paul and from Mallaig. There were nine Ashmont firefighters on scene, with two from St. Paul and two from Mallaig manning the tanker trucks.
“We have a small department as far as membership goes but we have a very good crew here and they are very good at what they do,” said Duperron, adding that it would be nice to have a few more volunteers that live in town, particularly for daytime calls. “Most of us responded from 15 km out of the community.”
He explained that it is difficult for all rural fire departments across the country to respond during the day.
“We are really lucky because a lot of these guys’ bosses said ‘if there is a fire, you go!” said Dupperon.
