One person was taken to hospital for smoke inhalation and a tenant lost most of their online business inventory stock following a garage fire on Patterson Road, Sunday morning.
Barrie firefighters responded to a residential blaze at the corner of Morrow Road shortly after 7 a.m.
There were two people inside the home when the fire started.
Upon arrival, firefighters described the scene as a “fully engulfed garage fire,” fire prevention officer Carrie Clark said at the scene.
“Because it’s a garage, there was no detection device like you would expect in a house,” she added. “They smelled the smoke and looked in the garage, saw smoke and called 911 and exited the building.”
One person was taken to hospital for smoke inhalation as a precautionary measure, but not admitted.
“We believe at this point there could have been a space heater involved, but we’re still in the investigation phase,” Clark said, adding the fire department has a saying to ‘give the heater a metre'.
The garage was being used to store inventory for an online business, Clark said.
“The products that are in the garage would have created a lot of smoke, dark smoke,” she said. “The structure in the garage has some unique items in it that would have caused some melting and a hotter fire than usual, but a quick knockdown guaranteed that it stayed in the garage.”
What exactly was in the garage was unclear, said Clark, who was just beginning her on-site investigation, but it appears to have been antique items.
With the “minor” structural damage in the garage and the man’s business inventory, Clark estimated the damage at around $50,000.
“Unfortunately, the tenant did not have tenant insurance or contents insurance, so they’ll be on the hook for the expenses,” she said. “The homeowner did have insurance and has started the claim.”
“The construction of the home allowed it to only burn in the garage and not infiltrate the home, which is good news for the tenants,” Clark added.
The tenants will be allowed to return to the living space once the utilities are turned back on, but Clark said the garage will remain off-limits for the probe.
Firefighters ensured there was no exposure to the neighbouring home and kept a close watch to make sure the fire did not spread, she said.
“The firefighters did a great job… containing the fire to the garage itself,” Clark said, “and ventilating all the smoke out of the home to ensure that their personal property was not impacted as much as it could’ve been.”
