While out watching a house fire in Cape St. George on Monday evening, Emmanuel Simon felt bad for the owners but also had a concern homeowner’s insurance might soon take another hike.
“It was a real bad fire and the firefighters did a good job keeping it from spreading to other homes nearby,” he said.
Simon said while insurance may be going up, there is really not much homeowners can do about it.
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The fire was the third in Cape St. George since early October, with another in mid-October in Ship Cove on the Port au Port Peninsula.
Simon spent about an hour watching the fire on Monday evening that was reported to the Cape St. George Fire Department at 7:29 p.m. and took about two hours to get under control.
The firefighters spent another three and half hours protecting other buildings nearby.
Simon said there were lots of people out for a look at the fire that night that resulted in the main road through Cape St. George being closed to traffic from 7:45 p.m. to about 1 a.m. on Tuesday.
Fire Chief Leroy Laney of the Cape St. George Fire Department said while the wind was to the detriment of the house that was on fire that night, it was the right way for other nearby homes since it was blowing away from them.
Still, firefighters had their hands full trying to keep other nearby buildings from catching fire and one of the homes ended up with some curled siding.
In total there were 28 firefighters, which also included personnel from the Lourdes Regional and Port au Port Regional Fire Departments.
Laney said all three fire departments had undergone training together on defensive firefighting techniques during the weekend and that got to put that training into practice on Monday night.
“The mutual assistance agreement is working and especially where we do training together, the firefighters are getting used to working together,” he said.
Laney said it was his understanding the couple who owned the home, which was a really nice structure, were carrying insurance.
