Fire destroys garage in Alberton

Alberton firefighters jumped into action Wednesday afternoon when a garage fire was reported at the Ed Hill residence on Hammond Road.
“You could see the black smoke just rising,” Alberton Fire Chief Sandy Haney noted as he and other volunteer firefighters arrived on the scene around 2 p.m.
Because the fire was burning intensely, Chief Haney said help was quickly needed to fight the blaze.
“We activated mutual aid [and] Devlin responded with their tanker truck,” he noted. “We just kept on getting water from the fire hall to put that fire out.
“If it hadn’t been for that aid, the whole house would have burned down,” he stressed.
This co-operation was under the Rainy River Mutual Aid Fire Association, where adjacent townships help in fighting fires too extensive for one department.
Firefighters left the scene at approximately 7 p.m.
Meanwhile, Chief Haney said the cause of the fire still is not clear. “Ed just told me he had lit the stove in the garage, and then . . . .” he noted.
The garage and all of its contents, including a camper trailer, tools, and auto parts, were destroyed, as was the north wall of the home scorched.
“The house is water damaged, and part of the ceiling was caved in, but it actually received little damage from the fire itself,” Chief Haney said.
No injuries were reported.