Seaway News Covers Massive Fire at Alice & First in Cornwall Ontario Instead of All Candidates Debate – Oct 1, 2014

alice first fire NELSON

CORNWALL Ontario – The Seaway News chased a fire tonight instead of covering the Francophone Meet and Greet the Candidates Spaghetti fundraiser at the Knights of Columbus.

photo courtesy Aaron White
photo courtesy Aaron White

The fire was a doozy!

alice fire AARON WHITE 2
Photo Courtesy Aaron White

 

The homes were near Jonathan’s Convenience at the corner Alice & 1st street and started around 7 PM.  The store apparently sold out of marshmallows…

Photo Courtesy of Todd LeBlanc
Photo Courtesy of Todd LeBlanc

One person was reported taken to CCH for respiratory issues.  Power is also reported off in the area; but it isn’t clear if a transformer blew or it was done as a precaution.

alice fire Joey Nelson

The house at 367 Alice is reported to be the same that had a body found in it last year.  Could the ghost possibly have nibbled at the wires and could this be the beginning of clearing space for Mayor Kilger’s promised East End park?

We will update as more info becomes available.

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If you see news happen email us at info@cornwallfreenews.com with your photos or videos.  You could win area event tickets or gift cards!

 

16 Comments

  1. You’d think with all their staff they’d be able to cover both events.

  2. Author

    I’m essentially only one person who is very grateful to our amazing community for any help I get like the folks that submitted some photos tonight. That’s what a community paper is all about. Right now I’m running two newspapers and two election races. I’m pooped!

  3. Hugger “all the free ad paper staff”???
    You would have to pry Rick and Todd out of the VIP beer tent…mcintosh is off running for city council leaving only adam to flip a coin to see what story to cover knowing NOBODY will ever see it anyway!!!

  4. You spoke well tonite at the franco meeting……when this fire was burning………wow…..too bad for the families here…….After shaking your hand and leaving ..I held the door open for Mr. Kilger ..who didn’t say thanks or acknowledge my presence…..well ..All I could think of was ” Kiss my Grits………” bullface “………!next time you get the door in the face..!

  5. What terrible journalism. People could have died and all you can do is be a sarcastic piece of work. This is why you wont win the election. Obviously human life isnt important to you nor is someone who is out of a job or business. You are a terrible person and should be ashamed of your remarks. And i hope you have permissikn to use these pictures and video without consent.

  6. Ran out if marshmallows? Peoples lives and homes at stake and you make this stupid joke? ?

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  8. As a victim of a fire where i not only lost my twin brother, but all my possessions this article makes me sick.

    how dare you make light of such a serious situation. Whats worse is you are running to represent a community!! Are you kidding me?

    I hope this article you so ignorantly wrote comes back to shame you in the worst way.

    shame on you.

  9. This has to be one of the most unproffesional articals I have ever seen!

    Brimg the marshmellows?!?! Seriously and you want the Mayors chair???

    If you want people to take you serious then perhaps you should be more professional and show some compassion for those affected by this fire!

  10. They didn’t come because they couldn’t afford the spaghetti.

  11. Author

    Megan I’m sorry you lost your brother in a fire. Yes, I am running to represent the community. There is a certain head space when it comes to fires in Cornwall. Crowds show up and say far more disrespectful things are said on site about them than anything I wrote. If it feels better venting then we’ve accomplished something for you.

    I also have helped victims of fires even though apartment insurance, which would cover loss in these tragedies, is less than $40 per month.

    There is a problem in the East End when it comes to sub standard housing and because of the density when a tragedy occurs it can spread quickly.

    There is no easy solution because frankly there is a shortage in Cornwall of decent housing. In other words if we didn’t have the substandard housing many people might have no housing. So people like yourself can vent about marshmallows and vote in the smiley nice guy that does nothing for your neighborhood other than put in chem tanks and kill apartment projects or you can look at the real issues. (That is if you actually do vote even)

    That’s something I’d like to address as mayor of our city.

    Sorry I don’t do the fake thing as well as others nor will I ever try to. If you or others don’t get that it’s a you issue; not a me issue.

    I’m more about solutions than silly outrageous statements of pointless hate.

  12. Megan I am very sorry for what you went through with the loss of your brother and your possessions. Back in the later 50’s era there was a big fire in a house on Marlborough Street and a girl who lived in that house was badly burned and the community came together to help. The house was gone but another was put in place. The previous house was a tenement house and they lived upstairs and she was thrown from the upstairs and was placed in the hospital with those burns. I haven’t heard about her or her family at all since that time and it made the headlines of the paper.

    Here is another for you Megan. My husband and I rented in the basement of a house in the North End when we were first married. The woman of the house was a registered nurse at the Hotel Dieu Hospital and her husband worked at Courthaulds. We were in Ottawa when this particular thing happened since we moved out a few years before. This particular fire happened at Christmas time and they had two very young sons one three year old and one one year old. The couple worked shift and worked the opposite shifts so as not to hire a babysitter. The three year old was a real devil and he went and played with a lighter that was on the coffee table and a fire ignited. The father died of three degree burns after being rushed to the Civic Hospital here in Ottawa and the children and their dog died of smoke inhalation. The fire fighters found the older son at the front door where he was believed trying to open that door with the dog. The baby was in the arms of the father dead on the kitchen floor. They are buried out in St. Andrews where the church is located. I am sitting here having a damn good cry over this because I knew them and can you ever imagine what these first responders go through on a daily basis. My husband and I have a lot of memories of that place. To finish off this story the nurse saw her husband and one son being brought into the emergency unit where she worked at the Hotel Dieu Hospital and the other son was brought to the Cornwall General Hospital. She never remarried up till today. My husband and I speak about them sometimes and it is very painful to think about.

    One more thing is that yes Cornwall lacks decent housing and that is the entire truth. We couldn’t find a place to live in Cornwall that was good and we put up with so much racism and everything you could think of. I can never live in a place like that ever again.

  13. Jamie you remember very well what Mr. Bob Hickley of the Fire Department said about what Paul Fitzpatrick said about “let the east end burn” and that was a big insult and some of us came here defending this. Mr. Hickley was badly hurt for coming forward about all of this including the hiring of Bare Ass’s son who was not qualified but got in anyway because of his old man being the mayor. Well Jamie you made a boo boo as well about toasting marshmallows and yes people are mighty ignorant in their comments but you are supposed to be an educated man and not some downtrotten, ignorant person who comes out with hurtful and ignorant comments. Many people are hurting in the east end and other places and they cannot pay for a decent rent. Most of the people who live in that area of town are uneducated. Some are mighty good people who were born and raised there and I had friends in that area of town and were from good families. Today their children are in Ottawa because there is no future at all in Cornwall. It will take a real miracle to change Cornwall around and then some. Anybody who owns a house knows that the upkeep, taxes, utilities, mortgage and you name it is way above and beyond approach and people are having a hard time everywhere to keep things afloat and most do not have money to do the upkeep on their homes. There are no good places to rent in Cornwall and area. Why live in Cornwall when it is in a deplorable shape. Nobody with any dignity will live in such a way unless they have no other alternative. Those houses were built during the Cotton Mill era and many of the people were from Québec. The Cotton Mill closed in 1960 and the weaving shed went to Venezuela back then. Cornwall has been going downhill ever since.

  14. ” Could the ghost possibly have nibbled at the wires”
    ” The store apparently sold out of marshmallows…”
    Those 2 quotes from your article were rude and unprofessional but it was your response to Megan that truly showed your true colours. I no longer live in Cornwall but I can tell you if I did I would not support you because of above mentioned comments. Megan is not the one that made any “silly outrageous statements of pointless hate” Jamie, but you did.

  15. Jules, The fire that you spoke about happened to my cousin,s two little boys who perished same day & her husband died in 2 weeks from his injury.E R staff had sent R N mom out of E R on a mission before ambulance arrived to help with the shock factor.My cousin later moved up north & has remarried years ago.She had one more son. She was not new to tradegy,previously she had lost 2 brothers & a cousin all killed on bikes by a drunk driver

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