A woman was taken to hospital with burn injuries after a house fire on the North East side of Paul Lake around 6:30 p.m. yesterday evening.
West Paul Lake community volunteer Ed Lund tells NL News says the house was a total loss but crews from East and West Paul Lake as well as Pinantan Lake all responded.
“The house was probably one of the highest points of their community which was basically farthest away from the lake, right beside the main Paul Lake-Pinantan Road,” he said. “So there was a lot of transporting of water to and from the lake up to the fire.”
He adds at this point it is unclear how the fire started.
“We heard that [the woman] got her propane tanks filled up and something let go and there was a big explosion. She was taken to hospital and was gone [to hospital] by the time we got there and so it was basically all speculation about how the actual fire started.”
Lund says when his crews got to the scene they found the house fully engulfed, but he notes they were able to prevent the fire from spreading to the nearby forest.
“That’s basically our main concern with all the fires,” he noted. “The chances of actually saving the house is a long shot but our main goal is to maintain the fires to one area so that the forest and adjacent structures are protected as well.”
(Photo submitted)