Extensive damage to Morden home after Wednesday afternoon fire

A home on Wardrop Street in Morden suffered extensive damage after a fire Wednesday afternoon. 

Morden Fire & Rescue Chief Andy Thiessen says when crews arrived on scene, they found the fire had started in the basement, and was contained to the mechanical room of the home and the bedroom on the floor above it. 

“The problem we had was it had already breached the floor above, which was a little bit of a safety issue for us, but all in all we were able to put it out relatively easily,” explained Thiessen. “The only problem was, because of that breach of the floor, we weren't able to get at one of the walls where we normally do a complete tear out to make sure we've got all the extensions of the fire.” 

After crews left, another call came in from the same location around midnight after the fire rekindled, with firefighters on scene a second time until about 4:30 a.m. Thursday. Thiessen noted the rekindling began in the same area as the initial fire, but had moved into the roof attic area leading to more damage. 

Thiessen said they have a pretty good idea where the fire restarted, but at this time, can’t say exactly where. 

“We weren't able to do a complete overhaul that we would normally do, it just wasn't safe for us to do that,” further explained Thiessen about the time on scene initially Wednesday afternoon. “We tried a different attack on it. Coming from the outside of the building instead of from the inside, but obviously we missed something that caused It to rekindle.” 

Thiessen added, if the fire had happened in the Summer, they may have been able to attack it differently, but again, safety concerns related to the floor breach and icy conditions around the home prevented that. 

The weather conditions during the time of the initial call were cold and very windy. 

“The wind was in our favour,” he said. “It was blowing it (the smoke) into an open park area, so the smoke didn't get into any of the neighbouring homes.”  

Thiessen stressed, what wasn't a benefit, was the cold temperature.  

“Our hoses were freezing, our regulators for breathing apparatus were freezing, so winter time firefighting is not fun. Firefighting at any time isn't the best, but winter time is even worse.” 

At this point in the investigation, Thiessen said the cause appears to be related to an electrical cord possibly having been pinched. 

Thiessen issued the following advice to all homeowners, “If they can look at their own electrical supply to appliances, (checking) that nothing is pinched, that things are looked after, then these types of things hopefully don't happen again.”