Dark smoke billowed from the roof of a Birch Street home in Orillia Wednesday morning. Emergency crews were dispatched to the scene around 8:30 a.m. for reports of a kitchen fire. Fire officials say the top floor of the home was heavily impacted, with the inside largely destroyed, leaving the house unlivable. The Office of the Fire Marshal has been contacted, but it’s unclear if investigators will attend. Paramedics say an Incident Response Unit was deployed to treat residents with smoke inhalation. Despite the response, no injuries have been reported. Officials say the homeowner and her dog were there at the time. She was outside working in the yard when she heard what she described as a “snap, crackle, pop,” and saw flames in the kitchen. A nearby resident told CTV News the smoke could be seen from nearly 1.5 kilometres away. Fire officials estimate roughly $700,000 in damages.
