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Donation to Fire Department -North Simcoe News

NSCN advertiser and Oro-Medonte Volunteer Firefighter Devon Hutton of Sugarbush Tree Service came to the roving Council meeting in Hawkestone September 14 to donate two chainsaws to the Oro-Medonte Fire Department. As Devon said in his speech, “My business has been doing really well and I wanted to give back to the community. I saw there was a need for some new chainsaws and I wanted to help out.”

Mayor, Council and audience were thrilled with Devon's donation and responded with applause and cheers. Thanks Devon for being part of our community!

40 Car pile up Highway 11 21Jan,2011

Emergency workers walk near the body of a motorist killed when she left her vehicle after being involved in a mulit-vehicle accident on Highway 11 south north of Barrie. Ontario Provincial Police are still investigating the crash, although they are blaming hazardous driving conditions and white-outs as one of the causes.J.T. MCVEIGH/QMI AGENCY/BARRIE EXAMINER 21Jan2011

Woman killed in 40-car pileup on Ontario highway

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Structure fire....Horseshoe Valley rd January 2010

Home badly damaged in fire

Sugarbush house damage estimated at $185,000

Posted By STAFF Jan 8th, 2009

Posted 1 hour ago

A fire Thursday at an Oro-Medonte Township home caused an estimated $185,000 in damage. Oro-Medonte firefighters responded about 6 p. m. to 80 Huronwoods Dr., in the Sugarbush neighbourhood, after a neighbour noticed a fire and called 911. No one was inside the one-and-a-half-storey structure at the time. The home is located about 60 metres from the road, which required firefighters to carry their equipment by hand to fight the fire. Crews were "somewhat hampered by snow conditions and had to work in knee-deep conditions in the areas surrounding the house," a news release stated. "The firefighters did a great job fighting the fire," said fire Chief Scott Cowden. "The fire had spread pretty rapidly, but they managed to get water on it quickly and prevented the loss of any major structural parts of the house."

No one home as house burns

ORO STATION HOME GOES UP IN FLAMES

■26 Nov. 2008

When Orillia Road resident Matt Gray noticed a glow coming through his front door window, he went outside to check it out. What he saw sent him rushing back inside. The glow, it turned out, was coming from the house across the street. "There were actually flames starting to lick at the roof," said Gray. "I turned around and ran back in to call 911." Oro-Medonte firefighters were called to the scene shortly after 8:30 p. m. Wednesday. Around 9 p. m. the flames had been extinguished but smoke could still be seen billowing from the windFrom where the flames were situated when he came out of the house, the fire had likely started in one of the bedrooms, he surmised. Fire trucks lined the section of Lakeshore Road East adjacent to the dead end street, as crews worked to douse the fire.ows of the one-storey home. Gray said a family moved into the home about a year ago but no one had been around all day Wednesday.

Flames rip through Shanty Bay home

Couple and three children lived at house, neighbours report

■ News / Local News

ORO-MEDONTE — Two firefighters were treated at the scene for heat exhaustion after battling a fast-moving blaze Wednesday at a home in an affluent Shanty Bay neighbourhood. Fire officials don’t believe anyone was in the house, but a thorough search had yet to be completed Wednesday night. Crews swept the first floor and found no one, but weren’t able to get into the basement because of the structure’s instability, said Oro-Medonte Township fire Chief Scott Cowden. The second floor was destroyed. “The second floor was fully involved and the flames were already going through the roof when we got here,” Cowden said, as smoke continued to pour from the home behind him, more than an hour after the initial call. Billowing, thick black smoke could be seen from as far away as north Barrie. Neighbours said a man and woman, and their three young children live in the home, which residents said is about three years old. Two residents said they believed the mother was a teacher. The home was gutted after flames raced through the house and tore through the roof. All that was left an hour later was a smouldering shell, with columns of smoke still rising and pockets of flickering fire. Firefighters were called to the stately home on Diane Court, off Line 2 South at Shanty Bay, around 2 p.m. Every available firefighter was soon called to the blaze. At its height, there were about 35 firefighters trying to knock down the flames. An exact damage estimate wasn’t available, but it’s expected to be expensive.

Pilot killed in crash

By TRACY McLAUGHLIN, Special to Sun Media 6th of July, 2008

ORO-MEDONTE — An Ottawa-area pilot crashed to a fiery death yesterday after his small home-built aircraft took a nose dive and went up in flames at the Lake Simcoe Regional Airport, just north of Barrie. Police would not release the pilot’s name last night and were trying to contact his wife, who was holidaying in Quebec and could not be reached. OPP said the pilot left the Carp airport, near Ottawa, in his RV3 one-seater — described as a home-built, kit plane — and took a flight over the Tobermory area, then stopped at the airport in Oro to refuel. After refuelling, the pilot practised a “touch and go” procedure which is common for amateur pilots, when suddenly things went horribly wrong. Witnesses at the airport watched in horror as the pilot started to touch-down then suddenly went nose-up as he put on some power, then went nose-down with a crash landing in the field next to the runway. Seconds later the plane burst into flames. He was nose up when the plane seems to have stalled,” said OPP Const. George Silvestri. “He was only a couple of hundred feet in the air at that point and at that height there is not enough time to correct. He went down nose first and hit hard.” “The entire cockpit area was reduced to ashes,” said Rae Simpson, an investigator with the Transportation Safety Board. “Right now we are trying to determine if it was a pilot problem or a technical problem.” He said there are dozens of factors to consider. “With these home-built models, even putting the wrong size of screw can create a problem with wind clearance.” He said an autopsy of the pilot’s burned body will be conducted today. The small airport was shut down while investigators and fire and police officials were on the scene. “It’s very tragic, said Oro-Medonte mayor Harry Hughes. “I understand this pilot has a wife and a young family member.” He said it was the first fatality at the small airport. “And let’s hope it’s the last.”

Boater, firefighters rescued; Wave swept boat under in Lake Simcoe

Posted 3 hours ago

STAFF - Four Oro-Medonte Township firefighters and a boater were rescued from Lake Simcoe yesterday when a wave swept their boat under water. An 18-year-old Toronto man, who had been attending an overnight party at a residence on Grandview Crescent in Oro-Medonte, set out for a pedal-boat ride, against the best wishes of his friends. The young man was quickly blown into the open waters of Lake Simcoe and, at 8:27 a.m., a call was placed to the OPP communications centre in Orillia, detailing the events that were unfolding. Responding officers from Barrie OPP arrived at the residence, located between the 8th and 9th Concessions of Oro-Medonte, and police spotted the man, who was without a life jacket. An OPP boat set out from Orillia and began to make its way to the area of the Toronto man. The Oro-Medonte Fire Department also responded with its air boat, and four firefighters in flotation-style survival suits set out into the five-degree-Celsius waters and plucked the cold pedal boater from his disabled vessel. Just as the firefighters got the man into their boat, their vessel was swamped by a wave and, within seconds, sank in approximately 80 feet of water. The OPP boat arrived within five minutes and rescued the firefighters and the boater, who had just been fitted with a life jacket as he was brought onto the Oro-Medonte Fire Department air boat. All five boaters were taken to the government dock at the end of the 11th Concession of Oro-Medonte, where they were examined by paramedics and released a short time later. The pedal boater was arrested and is facing charges under the Canadian Shipping Act, Liquor Licence Act and the Criminal Code, including impaired care or control of a vessel. He is scheduled to appear in Barrie court June 9.

Snowmobiler charged after hitting pickup truck

March 3rd, 2008 Staff - A man who crashed his snowmobile into the side of a truck Saturday has been charged. The 46-year-old Toronto man suffered minor injuries to his leg and face after he T-boned a Ford F-150 pickup in Oro-Medonte Township on Line 15, about a kilometre north of Old Barrie Road, early in the evening. The man was coming off a trail when he smashed into the rear passenger-side of the southbound truck. He has been charged under the Motorized Snow Vehicles Act with failing to yield at an uncontrolled intersection, Barrie OPP Const. George Silvestri said. The driver of the truck was not injured.

Oro schoolbus collision 'traumatic'Jan 29th, 2008

ORO-MEDONTE -- A bus load of elementary students suffered minor bumps and bruises and one woman was airlifted to a Toronto hospital after a collision just north of Barrie early yesterday. The school bus, carrying about 40 young students on their way to Guthrie public school, was a short distance away from the school on the 5th Line of Oro when it was suddenly hit by an oncoming Subaru station wagon heading southbound, causing serious injuries to the driver. "We think she's in pretty tough shape. You can see for yourself the condition of her vehicle," said OPP Const. George Silvestri as he pointed to the Subaru, completely crushed on the driver's side. Another woman, who is nine months pregnant and was collecting mail at the end of her driveway, jumped out of the way to avoid the collision. "She was taken to local hospital just as a precaution because of her condition," Silvestri said. Only one child was taken to hospital and later released. The other children were whisked into another bus and taken to school where a crisis team met with them.

Party hats traded in for fire helmets

Volunteer firefighters spend New Year’s Eve battling two blazes

Posted 02jan,2008

There wasn’t much time for Oro-Medonte firefighters to ring in 2008, as they spent most of New Year’s Eve battling house fires. The first call came in at 6:30 p.m. Crews from four of the township’s six stations responded to a single-storey bungalow on Slalom Drive near Moonstone, where a fire began in a wood stove in the basement, fire Chief Scott Cowden said. The owner and her partner were the only people home at the time, and they got out of the house. “It was some carelessness around stoking their wood stove that started the fire,” Cowden said. Firefighters managed to hold the fire to the basement. However, the cost of damage is estimated at $40,000, and a dog inside died of smoke inhalation. The owner of the home also suffered smoke inhalation and was taken to Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital. Seven hours later, at 1:30 a.m., firefighters from all six stations rushed to 43 Eight Mile Point Rd., around the 14th and 15th lines, near Carthew Bay. The owner of the one-and-a-half-storey cottage had returned from New Year’s Eve celebrations to find smoke coming from the structure. The cause of the blaze is still under investigation, but Cowden said he believes it was an electrical fire, as the point of origin was a fuse panel. Although “much of the building was saved,” Cowden estimated the cost of damage at $125,000. “Most of our firefighters were up all night between the two fires,” he said, noting he didn’t get back to bed until 6 a.m.