Several people are homeless after a “stubborn” fire caused extensive damage at a four-plex on Atherley Road Saturday night.
The Orillia Fire Department was called to the 351 Atherley Rd. apartments at about 11:15 p.m., said deputy fire chief Jeff Kirk.
“It was a stubborn fire,” he told OrilliaMatters Sunday morning. The good news is there were no injuries. The bad news is everyone who lived in the units are without a home, at least temporarily.
“There were people at home at the time of the fire,” said Kirk. He confirmed there was a woman at home in the apartment in which the blaze started.
Kirk said the cause of the fire, which he estimates caused about $150,000 in damage, is uncertain. An investigator from the Ontario Fire Marshal’s office has been called in to investigate and is expected to be on the scene later today.
“There is extensive damage to the ‘fire apartment’ and a lot of secondary damage,” said Kirk. “We had a terrible time because the fire got into the attic, so we had to do some cutting of the roof.”
Fortunately, there was fire separation between the units, which protected two of the units in the building, Kirk said. “They seem to be in good shape but there is no power or gas in the building now,” he said.
The Orillia OPP is “protecting” the site until the fire marshal’s investigation is complete.
Kirk, who noted more than a dozen firefighters fought the blaze and were at the Atherley Road site until about 5 a.m., said he hopes to be able to provide more information on Monday.
