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Wednesday, February 15, 2012 1937 - 2012 · Celebrating 75 Years Orono Weekly Times - 5 cards DURHAM COUNTY SENIORS EUCHRE Feb. 13th results top scores 1st Joyce Cowan 83 2nd Marie Couroux 82 3rd F. VanderHeuvel 76 (tie) John Pleasance 76 5th Edna Pyke 74 Most lone hands Ann Julicher, Edna Pyke, John Pleasance, Joyce Cowan - 4 Homeowner flees fire in Kendal By the time the first fire truck arrived at the house fire on Regional Road 9 in Kendal last Wednesday morning, flames were visible through the roof, according to Clarington Fire Chief Gord Weir. Besides managing to grab some papers off the kitchen table, Michael Blackhurst said he ran out of his burning home with nothing more than his cell phone and his jacket. Blackhurst told The Orono Times, he called 911 when he saw flames in the wall of his home. According to Weir, fire crews were dispatched to 4566 Regional Road 9 at 8:49 a.m. on Wednesday, February 8. The Orono Fire Department was the first on the scene with the pumper arriving at 9:03 and the tanker at 9:06. When fire fighters started to make entry to the home through the front door, the inside of the home was fully engulfed with flames, said Weir. By 12:30 p.m., the fire was mostly under control with a few hot spots remaining, Weir reported. Blackhurst said when he got up on Wednesday, he had moved the coals to the front of his combination wood/oil furnace and put two pieces of wood into the furnace. He was meeting with a ground-source heating representative at his home that same REBEKAH HALL EUCHRE Feb. 8th results top scores 1st France Cathcart 85 2nd Boyd Johnson 78 3rd Merrill Graham 77 4th Norma Moffat 75 5th Carol Graham 74 Most lone hands Boyd Johnson - 5 special cards Ray Keats, Betty Charland Fire crews were dispatched to Michael Blackhurst's home at 4566 Regional Road 9 in Kendal on Wednesday morning. Police are investigating the cause of the blaze. morning, when the representative noticed the home was getting smoky. Blackhurst said he too noticed the smoke and, without thinking, ran upstairs and opened the windows to let the smoke out. When he came back downstairs the representative noticed the flames in the wall by the stairway, so they both fled the building and Blackhurst called 911. While grateful that no one was hurt in the blaze, Blackhurst said he is upset about losing his father's ashes. His father had passed away three weeks ago, and Blackhurst had not had time to bring the ashes to Peterborough to be placed in the columbarium beside his mother's ashes. The cause of the fire is related to the possible malfunction or improper installation of the furnace, according to Weir. "We are not deeming it as suspicious," he told The Times. "Provincial staff are fairly confident they know what caused it," he stated. Sergeant Nancy van Rooy of the Durham Regional Police told the Orono Times on Monday that they are treating the fire as a suspicious incident. According to van Rooy, the police are treating it as a "suspicious incident under police investigation." Chief Weir would like to remind eveyone that the law requires every home in Ontario to be equiped with a working smoke detector on each level, and he recommends these smoke detectors be tested regularly.