A quiet evening wasn’t on the cards for Mike and Cheryl Waller – or another resident on Loon Lake – this past Monday (Oct. 6) after a small section of brush along the waterfront ignited and quickly spread across five acres of forest.
The Wallers, who live across the lake from the blaze on Victor Neimi Lane, had just sat down on their deck to enjoy some time outside when Cheryl spotted a red glow across the bay.
“At first it looked like brake lights, but then I said ‘something strange is going on here’,” Cheryl told The Highlander.
Mike raced back to the house to grab his binoculars, but in the minute-or-so he was gone the little red flicker had exploded outwards. Mike called the fire in to the Dysart Fire Department at around 7:45 p.m.
The fire hall, located behind A.J. LaRue Arena, is always busy on Mondays – training night for the local department’s volunteers. Because many were already on-site, Fire Chief Dan Chumbley said 16 firefighters responded – they were on-scene approximately 12 kilometres away within 15 minutes. Six firefighters also arrived from the Highlands East department.
Mike said he was amazed by the quick response. By the time the first truck arrived, the fire had spread to more greenery surrounding a cottage, creating a horseshoe-like appearance across approximately five acres of land.
“I’m really surprised it didn’t get the house, that shocked me. The way it was spreading and how quickly the flames were moving, I thought for sure it was in trouble,” Mike said.
Chumbley said high winds quickly moved the fire past the home, causing superficial damage only. Once on-scene, firefighters worked to push the fire up the hill and away from the lake and other neighbouring properties. The fire was deemed under control late evening, when firefighters were pulled off for safety reasons.
They returned Tuesday morning and extinguished what was left. Chumbley said site clean-up would continue through the week.
In the aftermath, Mike said he’s happy he and his wife decided to go outside when they did.
“If we weren’t out there, we probably wouldn’t have noticed it and the whole area might have been engulfed before anybody else saw it,” Mike said. “It was really quick to spread – it was just like how you see it in the movies, but for it to happen in real life and to see how unpredictable the flames could be, it was an amazing thing to see.”
Cheryl reserved special praise for the responding firefighters, saying the situation “would definitely have been a lot worse” without their quick intervention.
“They were there all night pumping and were back again in the morning… it was amazing work,” she said.
