Homeowner Alerted House Was On Fire Through App

Pete Fisher
5 years ago
• Categories: Local

Damage is estimated at approximately $80,000 following a house fire in Cobourg on Sunday, November 3, 2019.

At approximately 12:30 p.m. Coboourg Fire Department were dispatched to a structure fire at a home on King Street East between Brookside Road North and Coverdale Avenue.

Cobourg Fire Department Captain Scott MacDonald said the homeowners weren`t home at the time of the fire, but were alerted through a security device app (NEST) on their phone where they could actually see the fire in the kitchen.

Police arrived just prior to the fire department and though there was no smoke or flames visible, as they got closer to the house they could see the fire inside the window of the home.

Police kicked in the door allowing three dogs to escape the smoke filled residence.

MacDonald said from the side of the residence the fire was very visible inside the residence in the kitchen area.

“It was a quick knockdown, but there is a fair bit of smoke damage throughout the house.”

Without the homeowner having the app on his phone, damage most likely would have been considerably higher.

“The smoke is what set the detectors off, which sent an alert to the home owners phone and he was able to look at it through the cameras in the house. The damage would have been much worse because the fire would have had to wait till it vented outside before someone would have noticed it.”