October 20 2015, Cambridge Ontario firefighters were dispatched for a house fire at 1678 Seaton Road in North Dumfries Township at 16:50. Cambridge covers this area for North Dumfries for the first hour. On route to the call Cambridge P5 requested tankers from North Dumfries (Ayr) to augment the water supply.

Cambridge A1 was involved in a serious accident with a Regional Police officer while responding to the call. The aerial ended up in a field with serious damage. Five firefighters in the aerial were all belted and received minor injuries. They immediately started working on the trapped officer. The rescue and tanker remained on the scene of the accident. Crews extricated the officer who was airlifted to a hospital in Hamilton with serious injuries.

P5 arrived on the scene of the house fire and after a quick 360 reported they had a two-story, century-old house with heavy smoke showing and fire in the basement, going on offensive attack. Fortunately Hamilton had dispatched a first alarm on the fire as the house was very close to their border. Hamilton tankers were the first tankers to arrive and setup portable tanks and that fed Cambridge’s pumper. Firefighters knocked the fire down in 20 minutes.

Box 690 was just arriving on scene at a working fire in Heidelberg and split up the crew to respond to the Cambridge fire 25 miles away. These photos were taken during overhaul after a 50-minute drive in heavy traffic to the fire. Damage was estimated at $200,000. The homeowners had just completed a $150,000 upgrade to the house. Box 690 was on scene 2.5 hours providing rehab.

All photos by Gary Dinkel

Gary Dinkel photo

Gary Dinkel photo

Gary Dinkel photo

Gary Dinkel photo

Gary Dinkel photo

Gary Dinkel photo

Gary Dinkel photo

Gary Dinkel photo