John Francis,
Bruce Peninsula Press
On the evening of June 23, Sarah Wilkens was doing the dishes at her family’s home when she heard what sounded like a truck’s back-up alert. She assumed it was from nextdoor at the Bradley Davis Seniors Apartments or perhaps a nearby business. After several minutes, it seemed like too long for a truck to be backing up, so she went to see what was going on.
She found a crowd outside the Bradley Davis apartments and smoke billowing from an apartment window near the entrance. The sound she had heard was the building’s fire alarm.
She told her family and went nextdoor to see if she could help.
People were leaving and coming back with fire extinguishers — from the nearby community centre, from yachts and from nearby houses and businesses — which were then sprayed onto the fire by three men.
Owen Sound Fire Captain Glenn Welsh had spent the day working on his father Dan’s historic tug, Dawn Light at Tobermory Harbour. As he was heading home, he noticed smoke coming out of the “whirlybirds” on the roof of the Bradley Davis apartments. He parked, called 911 to make sure they knew about the fire (they did), and ran back to help.
He went into the building to knock on doors and make sure all the tenants had left and to look for fire extinguishers. Sarah Wilkens followed and helped.
Aidan Adams and John Bryan helped organize the search for fire extinguishers. Welsh texted his father to bring up the fire extinguishers from the Dawn Light. They continued knocking down the fire with everything that was brought.
Some bystanders are convinced that the three men saved the building from becoming fully engulfed before the Fire Department arrived.
Northern Bruce Peninsula Fire Chief Jack Burt stated that firefighters were paged when the call came in at 7:35pm. Bystander video shows them arriving at the scene shortly before 8:00pm. Chief Burt says that aggressive tactics kept the fire from spreading through the building’s common attic space. In fact, fire damage was limited to the one unit where the the fire originated, although there was water damage to two adjacent units and smoke damage throughout the building.
But it could have been much more serious and the response from firefighters reflected that. Crews from Lion’s Head and Wiarton also attended, as did the Inter-Township mobile compressor, which would have recharged the firefighters’ breathing tanks if that had been needed.
The building’s landlord is Bruce County. They state in an email that:
“Damage estimates for the 14-unit building are around $100,000.”
“We are hoping to have some of our tenants back into their homes shortly. In the interim we, along with community partners, continue to work directly with the tenants to address their needs and next steps. This includes temporary accommodation.”
Building resident Layne Adams offers a very different perspective. “The county put me up for a couple of days at a motel and then — you’re out.” He says he was told to ask his insurance company for support. He feels that this is unfair because he believes the landlord is responsible for the fire. “They’ve been told for years that smokers would cause a fire and never did anything about it,” despite the strict rules about not smoking. He does not know when he will be allowed to return to his apartment.
Another resident, Kandace Hopkins, agrees wholeheartedly with Adams. She too has been complaining about the smoking ever since she moved in to the Bradley Davis apartments, nearly five years ago.
Former MNBP Councillor Rob Rouse states that he has been complaining about flagrant smoking violations at the Bradley Davis apartments since his grandmother moved in there more than twenty years ago.
The County of Bruce has a no smoking by-law that prohibits smoking inside the building (including hallways, common rooms, laundry rooms, private units, balconies, and patios and within a distance of five meters away from any windows, entrances or exits to any building of Bruce County Housing Corporation).Asked if smoking might have caused the fire, Chief Burt stated that the fire has been deemed “accidental” and refused to speculate further.
Resident Linda Godhue was impressed with “…how great the response was from the Fireservices, Paramedics and OPP victims unit, and how wonderfully the NBP emergency plan was put into action. And not least how the community and businesses and Tobermory Community Outreach responded.”
She is grateful to the community for providing buses, motel rooms, pizza, water and so much more.
Godhue also recognizes a random act of kindness: “As I was exiting my apartment via my patio a younger couple came to my door and asked if they could be of any help. They carried my lawn chairs and helped others to the area away from the building to where we were to congregate nearer [to] the road. I did not recognize them and asked where they lived, and they told me they were visitors to the area and were out for an evening stroll. They saw the fire and came to help. They said they had some response training. In the confusion I did not get their names or where they lived.”
Some residents, including Hopkins and Godhue, have been told that they can move back into their units as soon as a water test comes back, but that test has been pending for ten days.
