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A single-vehicle crash just after midnight Saturday in Amherstburg ignited a natural gas fire that destroyed a home and sent the driver to hospital with serious injuries.
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“A vehicle left the roadway and took out a hydro pole and then missed a first house and collided with a second home and in doing so took out the gas service,” said Amherstburg Fire Chief Bruce Montone.
The vehicle ended up inside the home.
Emergency crews were called to the scene at County Road 18 and Concession Road 9. When fire fighters arrived at approximately 12:45 a.m., a natural gas fire was underway and a house and vehicle were fully engulfed in flames.
Montone said the seriously injured driver was flown to Toronto’s Sunnybrook Medical Centre Sunday morning, where he was admitted to the burn unit.
No further details on his condition are available.
“The home was a total loss,” he said. “I don’t have a final estimate on damage yet but the home was modest.
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No one was inside the home at the time of the crash.
“There is where luck strikes,” Montone said. “The family is away … and so as a result the driver is seriously injured but it could have been far, far more grave.”
Amherstburg Fire Department had staff from all three fire stations present, along with Windsor Police officers and Emergency Medical Personnel.
Enbridge was called in to deal with the natural gas rupture.
“We had to approach it with caution until Enbridge was able to get the appropriate staff on scene to shut the gas off,” Montone said.
“It did take some time but eventually the gas was shut off and that certainly aided us in extinguishing what was left (of the fire).”
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Heavy equipment was brought to lift pieces of debris so firefighters could extinguish the remaining fire
Crews were on scene until 7 a.m.
Police accident reconstruction staff were present most of Sunday investigating the scene.
“It was an outstanding effort by all of our partners, including police and EMS and Enbridge and others,” Montone said.
jkotsis@postmedia.com
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