Fire causes $100,000 damage to Carp Ag. Society building

Posted Feb 2, 2012 By Theresa Fritz

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EMC News - It could have been much worse.

That is what Carp Agricultural Society general manager Joyce Trafford was thinking after she was able to survey the fire damage done to the agricultural hall building on the fairgrounds Jan. 28.

"It happened and we were lucky. It could have been worse," Trafford told the West Carleton Review EMC. "There were snowplows out and people doing sanding and they called it (fire) in right away. It hadn't really had a chance to spread."

Trafford, who was roused from sleep just before 4 a.m. Saturday morning, said she didn't know what she would be facing when she arrived at the historic fairgrounds on Carp Road.

"We knew at that point it (fire) was in the office but when you turn the corner onto Carp Road and see all the lights, you don't know," she said, adding the fire was out by the time she arrived on the scene.

According to the Ottawa Fire Service, a 9-1-1 caller reported seeing smoke coming from the agricultural hall building around 3:22 a.m. A second caller reported flames coming from the roof of the building around 3:25 a.m. By, 4:12 a.m., the fire was under control.

Ottawa Fire Service has determined a gas fired heater ignited the wall on the second floor and it spread up the wall into the attic.

Fire crews contained the fire to the second floor office and meeting rooms, and the attic./ The dining hall and main floor office were protected from the fire./ Although there is damage to the exterior of the building, the large wall mural on the side of the building was saved. The mural was erected in 2008.

"The Carp fire department did a great job containing the fire to Room 85," Trafford said, referring to the second floor room which was added on to the lower office in 1985.

Later Saturday morning, workers could be seen stabilizing the building with pieces of wood, a gaping whole making their every movement visible.

Ottawa Fire Service is reporting damage to the building to be approximately $100,000 although Trafford said a more detailed amount won't be known until the insurance adjusters make their recommendation. She also does not know how long she will be out of the office below the fire scene.

Ironically, only a few days before at the Carp Agricultural Society annual meeting Jan. 25, last year's agriculture president Blair Armstrong spoke about how one of the projects still to take place was a complete renovation of the hall lower's office.

"We are going to be doing a facelift of the office," he said, adding the work would include new paint, flooring and some rearranging.

"I don't think anybody had this in mind when he said that," Trafford said, referring back to Armstrong's comments.

Trafford's computer was directly below where the fire was and took the most damage but she praised firefighters for "doing a terrific job covering desks" in the downstairs office.

Perhaps the biggest fear for Trafford was the vast amount of historical and one of a kind material in the hall.

"Peggy Blair is working on a book for the 150th (anniversary in 2013) and we had whole bunch of minutes out...there wasn't a drop of water on them. They have been moved offsite now," Trafford noted. "We also had photo albums from every year's fairs and they were okay too. They have also been moved to another location."

The Carp Agricultural Society office building and hall are community centerpieces and are well used outside of fair season. In fact, two events had been booked last weekend for the hall but did not happen because of smoke in the hall.

"We had an 80th birthday party booked there and I called around and got it relocated to the Carp Mess Hall," Trafford said. "Another party was the horse pullers dance and they just cancelled."

The 149th edition of the Carp Fair is slated to take place Sept. 20-23.

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