Eganville – The past weekend is one Bonnechere Valley Township firefighters won’t soon forget as first responders answered three calls in an eight-hour period that left a residence razed to the ground, minor smoke damage to an apartment unit in Eganville, a pumper truck that malfunctioned at the height of a fire, and a damaged fire truck after it rolled over on icy roads while returning to its station at Foymount.

“A weekend from hell,” is how Deputy Fire Chief Caleb Wagner described the period from Saturday night into Sunday morning. The first call was for the structure fire on Hwy. 41, three kms south of Eganville during which one of the department’s three trucks, a 1993 pumper, malfunctioned but despite the time lost moving other equipment into position the residence could not have been saved.

Fire broke out at the home owned by Willard Felhaber and when a passing motorist noticed it shortly before 10 p.m., flames were already visible in the night sky. Deputy Chief Wagner, who lives nearby, had to drive by the address on his way to the Eganville Station and said the back half of the bungalow was already fully engulfed. There was no one home at the time.

Despite a quick response time of nine minutes from when the call went in until the first units arrived on scene, the fire spread quickly throughout the 50-year-old home. Shortly after a portable tank was set up and the older of the first two trucks on scene used the water in its tank, it was then set up to pump water from the porta tank. But then a problem developed with the pump.

“It’s a 1993 truck and we have been doing our best to keep it running,” the deputy chief said. “We get it certified and pump tested every year. As soon as we went to, what we call drafting out of our porta tank, it was losing its prime and it was grabbing air. We tried everything we could to get it to work, but it wasn’t cooperating very well.”

He said the pump was repaired last year and was working well until the weekend. “We hadn’t had a whole lot of issues with it, but we really haven’t had many structure fires where we have used the porta tank lately, and it was unfortunate to find out it wasn’t working great, suction wise, on a house fire. You can train with it 10 or 15 times and it’s just one call it’s going to go bad and sure enough it happened to be this one.”

Deputy-Chief Wagner said the structure was fully compromised when personnel arrived, adding their focus was on extinguishing flames in the front half of the home hoping to preserve some of the belongings, especially personal items. “But with the glitch with that truck we lost some time and it is what it is, unfortunately.”

In the meantime, the department’s third truck arrived from the Foymount Station. It became the primary attack pumper and the second Eganville truck was used to transport water from a hydrant in the village. The cause of the fire is unknown due to the extensive damage but could possibly have been electrical in nature.

The residence was at one time home to the Blue Lantern Restaurant. It was originally built by Everett and Marcella Kuehl who operated a restaurant in the front part of the one-storey building and had living quarters in the rear section. It was later sold to Tony and Carolyn Zomers who continued to run the restaurant until Ron and Maggie Lavigne purchased it. It became a private residence in the mid-1990s and Mr. Felhaber and his late wife, Nancy, purchased it about 25 years ago.

While firefighters were dousing hot spots after local contractor R.J. Selle brought in heavy machinery to remove metal roofing and debris, another call came in for a stove fire in the Renfrew County Housing complex on Wallace Street in Eganville shortly before 3 a.m. The deputy-chief sent six personnel and one truck to that call.

“Thankfully, a neighbour had an extinguisher, so quick thinking on them,” he said. “They were able to get it out and then we went in, did a thorough assessment and made sure there was no fire spread,” he explained.

After it was deemed safe, the crew returned to the site of the original fire.

Truck Was Returning to Base At Time of Mishap

Deputy-Chief Wagner released the Foymount pumper, a 2006 model, just before 4 a.m. and firefighter Felix Fernandes was travelling on Spring Creek Road, which connects Hwy. 41 to Foymount Road, when the truck began to slide on the icy road surface just as it approached Foymount Road.

“As he was approaching Foymount Road, there’s that hard bend right at the stop sign and it was just like a bottle and the back end slid out and it hit the ditch,” he said. “It’s deep and so it flipped onto its roof. It was a gentle roll over, but due to the weight of it (full tank of water), and all of the equipment… the weight of the water just kept it going.”

Mr. Fernandes suffered minor injuries in the mishap but did not require medical attention. As a precaution, he did go to the hospital later to be checked out. The deputy chief said there is significant damage to the pump and tank sections of the vehicle but the extent of damage won’t be known until a further assessment is completed. A heavy wrecker from Holly’s Garage in Brudenell removed the vehicle from the scene.

With one truck completely out of service and the pumper truck being assessed, Deputy Chief Wagner immediately reached out to neighbouring fire chiefs Bill McHale in Admaston/Bromley (Douglas), Kevin Champ in North Algona Wilberforce and Jordan Genrick in Brudenell, Lyndoch and Raglan and all three have offered their support if needed.

“The fire community surrounding us has been very helpful and willing to step in and give us a hand,” he said. “Mutual Aid is a kind of last resort thing but when you get a situation like this, we are going to have to rely on our neighbours until we get a solution.

“Mutual aid is a great tool, but it’s only a short-term solution,” he said, adding the township doesn’t want to rely on neighbouring departments for assistance until next fall. “Obviously, there is a cost involved to them. But in the interim, it’s a great solution and they have been very supportive while we sort this out, and we certainly appreciate it.”

Renting a fire truck from a private firm is also being considered, he added. “But it’s in the hands of insurance right now, and there will be some further discussion and deliberation. We will do everything we can to ensure the community is not affected.”

Deputy Chief Wagner said it could be up to nine months—or longer—before the damaged truck is repaired or replaced.

Several members of the fire department have been spending Saturdays at the Eganville station completing certification training and testing.

“It’s been a pretty big commitment, and the calls have been staggered between the training,” he said. “They haven’t been too bad. On Saturday, everybody thought they could go home, rest and relax, and not worry about the testing because it was all done—and sure enough, we had to put our training into use.”

Deputy Chief Wagner compared the events of the weekend to the John Street fires in the fall of 2019 when two homes were completely destroyed and five others were damaged during a cold and windy November afternoon.