A fire caused $100,000 worth of damage to house in Barrie Friday night, leaving a family of five homeless.
Fire crews got to the house on Anne Street around 11:30 p.m.
“Our crews came and fought a fairly significant fire through the attic in this building,” said Barrie Fire investigator Judith Myddelton. “The most significant damage was done to a bedroom at the back of the house.”
Officials say the fire was electrical in nature, and started in the ceiling of the house.
“They have radiant ceiling heat, and it's electric, and it appears that they had had some water damage to the roof earlier,” said Myddelton. “The water damage caused them to need to make some repairs to the ceiling inside, and it looks like they put some screws into electrified wires, and it may have caused the wires to heat up and the fire to start in the ceiling.”
Officials are also crediting someone who saw the house on fire for their quick thinking.
“Someone just happened to be driving by, saw flames, saw smoke, actually turned around, came back. Knocked on the door, alerted the family that their roof was on fire and then proceeded to call 911,” said Samantha Hoffman with Barrie Fire. “The entire attic area is destroyed, the roof needs to be replaced, there is quite a bit of water damage in the house because we used a lot of water when we were dealing with this fire, and our crews estimate the damage to be about $100,000.”
Fire officials say there were working smoke alarms in the house.
The family did have insurance but it will be weeks before they will be allowed to move back in.
