Chris Lowrey
PONTIAC Jan. 26-27, 2018
MRC des Collines police had their hands full during a busy 12-hour stretch on the weekend.
On Friday night around 7:30, police and fire crews responded to a house fire at 392 ch. Cregheur in the Municipality of Pontiac.
According to MRC des Collines spokesperson Daniel Pariseau, the cause of the fire is still under investigation. With more than $500,000 in damage, the house is a total loss.
Nobody was injured in the blaze.
A few hours later at 3:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, police got a call about a car that struck a hydro pole in La Pêche.
When police arrived, the vehicle had caught fire and the driver had fled the scene.
Emergency services had to wait to extinguish the fire until Hydro-Quebec crews could cut the power to the hydro pole because of the presence of live electrical wires on the ground.
Two hours later, members of the La Pêche fire department notified police when they spotted the driver of the vehicle walking along the side of the road. Nobody was injured in the crash.
The 19-year-old driver from the Municipality of Pontiac was arrested for impaired driving and will appear in court in the coming months.
