Incident serves as cautionary tale, says platoon chief

THUNDER BAY - Pests lurking around a north side home caused a little more damage than usual, as an attempt to get rid of them led to a response from Thunder Bay Fire Rescue.

Just before noon on Monday, fire crews responded to reports of a fire at a South Rockwood Avenue home. Arriving crews discovered a fire on the exterior of the structure that appeared to have spread to the interior basement, resulting in a second alarm being called.

“What happened here was kind of an unfortunate accident,” said Thunder Bay Fire Rescue platoon chief, John Kaplanis. “The homeowners were dealing with a wasp’s nest on the outside of the home and the father of the homeowner thought he was doing a good job of getting rid of the nest by pouring some gasoline on it and igniting it. That is what caused the interior portion of the home to ignite.”

The fire was quickly extinguished and Kaplanis said there was very minimal damage to the inside of the home, however, a large portion of siding had to be removed from the exterior to apply an extinguishing agent. There were no reports of injuries.

Kaplanis said this serves as a cautionary tale when it comes to dealing with pests in, on, or around a home and improper methods can be very dangerous.

“The use of the accelerant for one thing, the gasoline,” he said. “Obviously, pouring that on a largely wooden structure, highly combustible, and it’s a nice, dry, windy day, it’s not advisable at all. If you are dealing with pests like that either use a commercial product you can spray on the outside of the home or nest, or call a company that is an expert on getting rid of pests.”