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A backyard fire may be linked to a middle-of-the-night house fire that killed three pets and caused about $250,000 worth of damage to a southwest London home, firefighters say.
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“The cause or origin of the fire appears to be in the area of a fire pit that was on the deck below the gazebo,” Colin Shewell, a platoon leader with the London Fire Service, told The Free Press on Sunday. The blaze spread to the main floor of the house, he said.
Fire crews responded to the house fire at 63 Guildford Cr., south of Commissioner Road in London’s Westmount area, about 2:30 a.m., Schuell said. “There were two occupants inside,” he said. “They were initially alerted by their smoke alarms and then went outside (and) called 911 with their two dogs.”
One person went back into the house to try to save their three remaining pets, Shewell said. None of the residents were injured, but two cats and a bird died in the flames, he added.
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Damage from the fire, which officials say is not suspicious, is estimated at more than $250,000. Investigators were still at the scene Sunday afternoon.
A backyard staple for many homeowners, fire pits were rated the most popular outdoor design feature by the American Society of Landscape Architects, NBC News reported in 2018. There were at least 5,300 injuries related to fire pits and outdoor heaters in 2017, triple the number a decade earlier, according to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.
On Sunday, fire officials took the opportunity to remind people not to re-enter their home to rescue pets during a fire.
“It’s essential that when people get out, they stay out, call 911 and go to their rendezvous point and meet our firefighters so they’re aware of the situation.” Our fire crews are on the scene very quickly,” Schewell said. “We’re all pet owners and they’re part of the family, but we want to make sure people are safe and then we can go about our business.”
Last week, London firefighters rescued a dog from an east end house fire that caused about $600,000 worth of damage. Firefighters rescued the 14-year-old dog, Parker, from one of the bedrooms and gave him oxygen, Shewell told The Free Press at the time. The sole occupant of the house escaped safely. Investigators are investigating the fire, which police have described as suspicious.
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