by Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Oct 22/97) - A Saturday-night fire caused $55,000 in damage to a Calder Crescent home and put a damper on a little girl's birthday party.

Corrine Inward-Jones, 10, and seven of her closest friends were in the middle of a spaghetti-eating contest just before 10 p.m., when her mother, Cheryl, noticed smoke billowing from their fireplace and light sockets.

Alastair McLean, Cheryl Inward-Jones' common-law husband, was in the basement of their month-old home and immediately evacuated the house.

"We threw fire logs in the fireplace to let a little bit of heat into the home and the chimney went up," said McLean, standing on the street with his wife.

It took firefighters 10 minutes to find the fire in the home and bring it under control.

"It was a bit of a shock," McLean said as one neighbor after another came up asking if he needed their help or a place to stay for the night.

Crews spent considerable time on the scene, rooting around in the roof, digging out hot spots and removing insulation.

"The fire we believe is connected somehow to the fire place," said deputy fire chief Mike Lowing.

It's premature to say that it was definitely related to the chimney, Lowing said, because the chimney seemed to be in good shape.

"There could be many causes for the fire. The fire appears to be in the area of the fireplace and chimney but we need to check to make sure there isn't any electrical wiring running through that area. We need to check to make sure that the fire place itself did not fail," said Lowing.

Fire crews made a "three-pronged attack" into the 20-year old home at 32 Calder Cres.

They went down through the roof, up the roof on the inside and into the south-side wall on the outside.

Once all the flammable, blown-in fibre insulation was cleaned out, crews covered holes in the roof and wall with tarp.

McLean and his wife moved back in around 11:30 that night.

Lowing said the whole roof of the split-level section will have to be replaced.