GRANVILLE FERRY, N.S. — A woman lost her home early in the morning May 10 when flames ripped through her century-old house at 33 Garden Road overlooking the Annapolis Basin at Granville Ferry.
But she escaped unharmed, said Annapolis Royal Fire Chief Andrew Cranton at the scene five hours after the 7:30 a.m. call that saw firefighters from across the Valley and beyond respond with pumpers, tankers, and ladder trucks.
“It was noticed by one of our firefighters passing by on his way to work, and he pulled up and saw the structure fully involved on the north end, met with the home owner and made sure she was safe and then he sounded the alarm via radio and got Valley (Communications) to dispatch us,” said Cranton.
“We raised a second alarm for more manpower and water,” Cranton said. “We had everybody from Port Lorne, Middleton, North Queens, to Bear River, all the way around, to fight this fire. It was a hard fire to fight where it’s two-and-a-half storey, balloon construction. It was very difficult and trying for sure.”
Cranton said there was another house within 15 feet of the house that burned.
“Our first thoughts after we knew that we couldn’t do entry inside was to protect the surrounding structures and slowly attack the main fire until we got adequate resources here to put a full barrage onto it,” he said. “We have Brown’s Excavating here because we can’t gain access to the house. There’s no floors to stand on. We still have fire in the attic we have to get at. This is where it leaves us no choice but to make sure we get the fire out -- completely extinguished by any means. We’ll have to use an excavator to pull it apart and start putting it out.”
They had plenty of water to put on the fire.
“We used the Granville Ferry hydrant system and as a precautionary measure we set up portatanks on pumpers we were operating and called in tankers from Middleton, Port Lorne, Lawrencetown, Bear River, Bridgetown and surrounding areas to give us a backup in case the hydrant system failed,” he said. “We could automatically switch over to our portatanks and start ferrying in water from the town. And if we had to, utilize the dry hydrant on the causeway.”
In the end, the hydrant system kept up with demand.
“We basically fought most of the fire on the hydrants,” he said, “but we did use one portatank at the back of one of our engines to supply more water to the ladder truck.”
Cranton was grateful for all the help. He estimated there were about 60 firefighters on the scene and there was plenty of smoke.
Middleton and Bridgetown’s breathing apparatus was needed. “We were going through a whack of air,” Cranton said.
Firefighters were still on the scene at 12:30 p.m. and Cranton expected they’d be there for another two hours.
“The Ferry has been shut down,” he said. “All traffic has been shut down and re-routed to the back street.”
By 2 p.m. the house was knocked down and firefighters were dousing hot spots in the debris.
The house was not insured, Cranton said.
