The fire completely destroyed the community member’s truck, as well as caused significant damage to their garage. (Steve Bonspiel, The Eastern Door)
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An early morning fire destroyed a vehicle and caused extensive damage to a community member’s garage last Thursday.
According to assistant Peacekeeper chief Jody Diabo, the call came into the station at 2:45 a.m. about the fire.
26“The truck was on fire in the driveway. It spread to the garage. The garage is attached to the house, but we stopped it in the garage,” said Kahnawake Fire Brigade David Scott.
The vehicle was parked in the homeowner’s driveway at a residence in Katisville, near Matty’s Park.
Dio Phillips lives next door to the residence.
“The power went out because I sleep with the TV on and then it went out and I was like ‘it’s too quiet in here,’ so I got up. I said ‘since I’m up, I’m going to go outside and have a cigarette’ and happened to look out the window and seen the flames,” he told The Eastern Door.
Two passersby had already called the Peacekeepers about the fire.
“Who knows how long it was burning? Two girls driving around happened to see it and called it in, the owner of the house (Johnny Jacobs) didn’t even know until somebody woke him up,” said Scott.
Jacobs didn’t want to say too much to The Eastern Door but wanted to thank the two women who woke him up after the fire was started, and the KFB for saving his home.
While the fire is still under investigation, Diabo said the Peacekeepers don’t believe it is suspicious.
“They can’t determine that yet. The investigator doesn’t think it is, but he’s just waiting to check some stuff out – video surveillance footage and stuff like that – but it may have been mechanical,” she said. “They are looking at some homeowners who had video cameras. So, we’ll see and go from there.”
Scott doesn’t believe it is suspicious either.
“There’s nothing left for me to look at. Absolutely nothing left but the skin of the truck,” said Scott. “Something could have shorted out in the engine, the battery, he (Jacobs) had said he parked around 7-7:30 p.m. that night and that’s where he left it. I think he had done quite a bit of driving that day. It happens, you have electricity in the vehicles and something could happen,” he said.
Scott said during the blaze, Hydro in the area had to be cut, and the water filtration plant was notified because of gasoline from the truck spilling into the sewer system.
As a result of the gasoline, firefighters also used class B foam for fire suppression to prevent combustion.
“With Class B foam, we siphon it out of a bucket, and it’s for oils, gas fires…to put a blanket down over the gasoline that was spilling all over the driveway and road,” said Scott.
