Firefighters were at the Port Carling Golf Club to start the long weekend, but left their clubs at home.
The Muskoka Lakes Fire Department responded to a laundry fire at the facility just before 11:00 a.m. Friday morning. Fire Chief Ryan Murrell says oily rags caught fire in an industrial dryer.
“Crews stepped in pretty quickly to suppress the balance of the fire. The people who worked there had already applied extinguishers,” says Murrell. “We quickly cleared out the back end of the building, took out some parts of the wall that had caught on fire, and left it back in the hands of the owner.”
According to Murrell, it’s not uncommon for this to happen in places with an in-house laundry, such as hotels and restaurants. He recommends checking your rags twice before washing.
“If you’re using rags to clean up anything, and there’s any chance of getting food-based oils on the rags, make sure they’re thoroughly cleaned,” says Murrell. “And maybe just hang them to dry, don’t place them in a commercial dryer.”
Murrell says the business won’t have to shut down, but might be without laundry for a couple of days.
“I don’t really know much about the damages, cause I’m not in the commercial laundromat business, but I would say that the dryer would be out of commission for a bit,” says Murrell.
He estimates the total damage at $5,000 to $10,000.