A mysterious fire destroyed a garage and took out power and telephone lines in Marsh Lake over the weekend.
On Saturday afternoon, Don Sippel was working in his garage in the South McClintok subdivision, getting out his Christmas lights to decorate a tree in his yard.
“The fire started around 5 p.m. I was in the garage not even 20 minutes before that. There was quite an explosion, and I turned around and there was a ball of fire in the garage,” Sippel said.
Sippel said he has no idea how the fire started, and that there were no flammable materials in the garage that could explain such a sudden conflagration.
“Where it started, it should never have started in that area. It’s just one of those things… It’s a very odd thing. There were no flammables near it. We’re just guessing right now. The fire marshal was here all day yesterday, and even he was puzzled,” Sippel said.
Sippel tried to fight the fire himself with a fire extinguisher, but to no avail.
“It just kept getting bigger and bigger so I said, ‘Hey, this is not for me.’”
He called for help and volunteer firefighters from the Marsh Lake and Carcross departments were on scene to quench the fire in about 20 minutes, Sippel said.
The fire marshal’s office is still investigating, Sippel said.
The fire marshal was not immediately available for comment by press time.
Contact Jesse Winter at jessew@yukon-news.com