A portable electric heater may be to blame for a fire that destroyed two trailers north of Waterloo, officials with Woolwich Township say.
The flames broke out around 1:30 a.m. at Martin Grove Village.
Fire crews from St. Jacobs, Conestogo and Elmira arrived to find two trailers aflame.
By that point, a number of the trailer park’s residents had already awoken and congregated to watch the flames.
“We got woken up at 1:30 by a man that was knocking on our door and ringing our doorbell, telling us to wake up because there was a big fire,” Jennifer Elliott said.
“I don’t know who he was.”
Walter Harder, too, was alerted to the fire by a mysterious stranger.
“We had a fellow come to the door and hammer on it, (waking) us up,” he said.
“The flames were way up in the air. Sparks were flying over our roof.”
On his way home from a hockey game, Scott Jordan was one of several people who saw flames as they travelled down the road, and pulled over to help.
“I just wanted to make sure that the neighbours directly beside and behind were safe, and rapped on the door to make sure that they were able to get out safely,” he told CTV News.
Harder praised the 40 firefighters at the scene for their work containing and extinguishing the flames.
“If they hadn’t been as fast as they were, we wouldn’t be sitting here (and) talking. This place would be gone too,” he said.
The lone person injured in the fire was a 72-year-old woman who was taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.
Damage is estimated at $200,000.
