by CONNIE TABBERT
Editor
BEACHBURG — A family of six was displaced Wednesday afternoon following a house fire.
Jan and Colleen Nagel and their four children stayed with family last night as they decide what to do for the next few months.
Mr. Nagel noticed the fire while feeding cattle at the family barn across the road. He said he could smell something “like someone was using a Skihl saw,” he said. Knowing the workers working on the shed weren’t cutting anything, he looked across the road and noticed smoke coming out of his own LaPasse Road home.
He ran across the road and looked inside but it was totally black and then flames started coming out of the large, front window.
Mr. Nagel tried to call 911 with his cell phone, but reached Quebec. When he tried again, he reached Ottawa. Giving up, he called his father Henk who called 911 and reached the local dispatch.
“Once the fire department was called, they arrived quickly,” he said.
Whitewater Region fire chief Wayne Heubner said the call came in about 1:30 p.m. Beachburg was dispatched as well as tankers from all stations and the pumper from Cobden. The Haley Station truck was gone by 2:30 while the Cobden truck was sent home before 3 o’clock.
Mr. Nagel went into the home, with permission from the fire department, and got important papers, his wallet and the family’s passports.
“I’m a farmer, I don’t carry my wallet with me,” he said.
There are two large rooms downstairs, a living room / office and a kitchen and four bedrooms upstairs. He believes the fire started in a front corner of the kitchen, but doesn’t know what caused it. No one was cooking, because no one was home, he said.
Chief Heubner said the problem with the 911 calls being routed to Quebec is a concern and he has spoken to Bell Canada about it. He has tried to let those people in the La Passe, Westmeath areas know if they call 911 to say 911 Ontario.
