Improperly extinguished smoking material is being blamed for a $125,000 blaze in a Petrolia apartment building that forced firefighters to rescue a tenant from an upper-floor unit.
A woman living on the second floor of the Central Apartments, a Lambton County-owned building on Greenfield Street near town hall and the Victoria Playhouse Petrolia, had to be helped outside during Sunday afternoon’s evacuation.
Jay Arns, chief of the Petrolia and North Enniskillen fire department, confirmed Tuesday the cause was “smoking material not properly extinguished.” He also provided the damage estimate and confirmed there were no injuries.
A Lambton OPP spokesperson didn’t respond by press time Tuesday to a question about potential charges.
An official on scene Sunday recalled seeing heavy smoke coming from apartment 203 when they arrived, but firefighters managed to put out the flames within 10 minutes. A woman living in a different unit on the other side of the building had to be helped down by fire crews.
Emergency responders planned to bring in a temporary heated shelter for the displaced tenants as they waited for firefighters to inspect the building. Arns said all tenants, except for the person living in the unit the fire broke out, were able to return to the building Monday. The unit at the center of the blaze, however, will need to be completely rebuilt, he added.
Firefighters from Plympton-Wyoming and Lambton provincial police and paramedics were also on site on the day of the blaze.