By Bruce Corcoran
Not again!
That was the fear running through Dave Polowick’s head when he received a phone call last night there was a fire on Colborne Street in Chatham very close to his office.
It turns out, the fire was from a large stack of railroad ties on CP Rail property behind where his office is located at 361 Colborne St.
The local architect saw his office burn in early October when the building that housed Dave Polowick Design and QPS Mechanical on Hart Place – only a few hundred metres from his current location – caught fire.
Mere months after relocating, he got another scare last night.
“I was at home finishing supper and got a call that the railroad ties were on fire behind the property,” he said. “Then a client phoned up and said the office was burning. We jumped in the truck. Driving down Sass Road, we saw flames shooting up just where my office would be.”
Fortunately, Chatham-Kent fire crews were working to contain the fire to the railroad ties, despite a swirling wind.
“I got into the office, grabbed my iguana and our hard drives and sat back and watched the fire, and hoped the wind didn’t shift,” Polowick said. “It did shift a few times and we got a little concerned. Luckily, it wasn’t the middle of summer when things are dry.”
Chatham-Kent fire officials said the cause the fire is undetermined.
At one point, there were more than 40 firefighters on the scene.
Polowick said the rail ties are piled up 15-20 feet high.
“It’s certainly a hazard to anyone trespassing,” he said.
As for Polowick, he joked that the fates might be conspiring against him.
“I fell a little cursed,” he said. “The funny thing is, just a couple of days before that my wife said, ‘With your luck, a lighting bolt was going to hit your building and burn it down,’” he said.
