Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Greater Napanee Emergency Services crews were called to a fire at Richmond Veterinary Clinic Wednesday morning which saw one person taken to hospital with non-life threatening injury.
GNES was joined by support from Stone Mills Fire Department in responding to a call early Wednesday morning of a report from a fire caused by an oxygen tank. One vet staff member was taken to hospital with burns while the rest of staff and animal patients were evacuated safely with no injury.
“We’re just waiting to get more from witnesses to see exactly what went on,” said GNES fire prevention officer Kevin Duncan.
One of the major challenges with this fire was ventilating smoke due to the design of the building.
“The room of origin got burned up pretty bad,” said Duncan. “It got through the ceiling, it’s a drop ceiling and would have travelled horizontally so it went through two different rooms, a lot of smoke damage. The whole place was just jammed with smoke. Significant smoke damage and that’s the kind of thing that takes time (to repair).”
Duncan says it will be awhile before the building will be able to open to the public. Fortunately the fire happened early in the workday, which meant there weren’t many clients in the vet at the time.
“The animals got out which is dynamite, that’s good. No injuries for them,” said Duncan. “Thankfully it was just after they opened so there wasn’t any public animals in there, they weren’t servicing people at that time I don’t think, so there wasn’t a lot of members of the public there which is good. That’s one bonus, you could look at it that way.”
Duncan says they will follow up with witnesses to determine what was going on right before the fire. That information will not only help determine what went wrong in this case but also serve to prevent a similar situation at other businesses that store oxygen tanks.
*This story has been updated to reflect the fact a staff member was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries*
Members of GNES enter the back of the building carrying a hose. Photo by Adam Prudhomme.