A microwave oven sparked a raging fire which destroyed a sugar shack early Friday morning in a small town north of St. Hyacinthe.
Passersby driving along a road 2 km from the sugar shack spotted a ball of flame coming from the site and alerted emergency workers.
The fire, which began around 1 a.m. at Domaine Saint-Simon, in the town of Saint Simon de Bagot, was so hot and widespread that firefighters from five municipalities rushed to the scene to control the flames.
The family that owns the Domaine Saint-Simon sugar shack live nearby, but they were asleep when the fire broke out. Neighbours who heard the sirens woke them up in the middle of the night to tell them their family business was burning.
Hugo Chamberland, son of the registered owners of the maple orchard, was at the scene of the fire on Friday morning.
"It's a huge shock for us," said Chamberland. "We were planning to open tomorrow."
The work of the firefighters was was complicated because of several large propane tanks on the site, and the fact the buildings had no alarm system.
By the time firefighters arrived at the scene the fire had spread throughout the the sprawling structure, and it took hours to extinguish the flames.
Nobody was at the sugar shack when the fire began, and nobody was hurt putting out the fire.
More than nine hours later the ashes were still smouldering and giving off smoke.
Investigators combing through the wreckage on Friday morning were able to determine that the fire started in a microwave oven in the complex's kitchen, although they do not yet know if there was a short circuit, or if an electrical plug had frayed and caused a spark.
