3 million $ Cumberland house fire

OTTAWA — The Ontario Fire Marshal's office has been called in to investigate after a Cumberland home worth $2.5 million burned to the ground early Tuesday morning.

"It was a beautiful house. It's too bad," said Maria Tsourounakis, who lives next door.

Fire crews responded to the call at 3304 Wilhaven Dr. at 4:24 a.m. Tuesday. The fire started in the garage, which was completely ablaze when firefighters arrived and had extended to the house.

A man was asleep in the house when the fire started. He told fire crews he was awoken by the sound of an explosion in the garage.

Ottawa Fire spokesman Marc Messier said when the man went outside to investigate, he discovered the garage was on fire. The man was uninjured, but he will not be able to return to his home and most, if not all, of the contents were destroyed, he said.

Tsourounakis said she heard tires screeching in her driveway in the middle of the night. It was Proulx, who knocked on her door in a panic asking her to call 911, she said.

Tsourounakis saw smoke billowing from the house and heard at least two more explosions, she said. She said Proulx didn't know what caused the fire, but told her he thought it might have been related to a boat charging in the garage.

A recent real estate listing for the house describes it as "palatial living," with property taxes of $8,000 a year. The house sits on 73 acres and had six bedrooms, 3,500 square feet of heated marble floors, an outdoor pool, a gym and parking for more than 20 cars. Photos show a sprawling white house with a long front walk leading to the pool with columns at the front entrance.

After the fire, nothing remained but a few blackened shards from the walls jutting out from the foundation and rubble.

Neighbours said Proulx owned several boats and high-performance cars, including a Saleen Mustang and a Cadillac Escalade SUV , Hummer H2, Ford Gt40, which he was fond of driving around the rural roads in the area. They said he has lived there for years and the house has been for sale for a Little less then one year .

One neighbour said she had never actually seen the house — the driveway is more than a kilometre and a half long and it's not visible from the street. The house stood out from the other moderately sized family homes in the secluded country area.

Messier said the length of the driveway cost fire crews time when they were putting out the fire. It took two tankers stationed at the end of the driveway to fill the hoses, he said.

Six tankers had to bring in water from Ottawa, with 18 emergency fire vehicles responding in total. Damage to the building is estimated at $2.5 million and damage to contents is estimated at more then $500,000.

The luxury home was for sale on grapevine.ca, which offered a virtual tour of the site.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Ottawa
• 2.5M$
• Cumberland
• house
• fire
• ontario
• news

[baz101phil]

@Hailsrox11 actually you have it all wrong so id check my facts before going around there buddy

[Jlk2707]

Oh! It is just so beautiful! It looks better than ever before!

[xXxIPOCKSxXx117]

Damn 3 Million Dollar House. SHIT! Damn.

[Hailsrox11]

he was not awaken from it he was on his 4 wheeler and the gas leaked out and he had 180 L of gas in his garage he heard the boom and took of

and at least u guys don't live down the road

[georgiatechfan1]

Hope he had house insurance.........

[arohn2007]

Ouch! No house that burns to the ground is a good thing..Especially sickening to have a $2.5 million dollar house burn to the ground