No humans were injured but a dog perished in an early morning fire on Nikkei Place in Cumberland.
Cumberland Fire Rescue received the call at approximately 6:30 a.m. Thursday, May 16.
The structure was a shed on a residential lot, apart from the main home.
“It’s complicated. It’s a shed, but I think people stay in it,” said Cumberland Fire Chief Mike Williamson. “There were people in it at the time. They self-escaped. No injuries but there was the loss of one dog.”
Two engines and a dozen firefighters from Cumberland Fire Rescue were deployed. No mutual aid was needed.
“The shed was fully involved when we got there,” said Williamson, who said there were challenges to fighting the fire. “There were three propane tanks that were off-burning, and a couple of acetylene bottles - we noticed them right away and the owners told us they were in there. So no one entered the building; it was all fought from the outside because of those (containers).
“It was full of equipment, tools and so much stuff in the shop part of it. It also had a loft in there that caved in. The people said they were in there watching TV when the fire broke out.”
Williamson said had the call come in any later, the main building could have suffered extensive damage.
“We got there just in time,” he said. “The umbrella on the porch got burnt, flower pots got burnt, but it just wrinkled some of the vinyl siding on the main house. The shed is a total write-off.”
It took crews about 40 minutes to knock down the fire.
“It didn’t take long to knock it down, but we were there for several hours because there was so much stuff in there and the roof had caved in, making it an unsafe structure.”
The cause of the fire has yet to be determined. Cumberland Fire Rescue will return to the scene for inspection in the morning.