Parts of a house in Dwyer Hill were already beginning to collapse when firefighters arrived at the scene of a fierce fire there on Sunday morning. The house sustained $350,000 in damage and will have to be rebuilt.
According to firefighters, the house at 2353 Dwyer Hill Rd. was already engulfed in smoke by the time a neighbour alerted them to the blaze. They searched the house for occupants -- it later turned out the couple living there was out of town -- and then moved to douse the structure from the outside once they determined the place was empty.
Forty firefighters and 10 trucks responded around 6:30 a.m., taking an hour and a half to get the fire under control.
The cause remains under investigation.
Dwyer Hill is about 40 minutes south of downtown Ottawa, near Carleton Place.
