COMBERMERE – According to the fire chief, on March 21/2020 at 11:16 PM the Madawaska Valley Fire Department was dispatched to a house on fire at 39158 Combermere Road, next to the Combermere Service Center.
Fire Dispatch had 4 calls to report the fire: 2 from cars passing by and 2 from the neighbours who spotted the fire. The structure was fully engulfed when fire fighters arrived.
At this point the fire department went to a defensive attack, as there was a 22-foot trailer full of tires 8 feet from the rear of the house. The other concerns of the fire fighters were a 500-gallon tank with diesel, 500-gallon tanks with gasoline and a 250-gallon tank of waste oil that were hosed down to keep cool. Along with this, it was -15 Celsius and felt like -21 Celsius with the wind chill. Everything was turning to ice, including the fire fighters. Tanker trucks shuttled 14,000 gallons of water to prevent the fire from spreading and to finally extinguish it.
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