January 30, 2026

FIRE DESTRYS COTTAGE-HOME AT END OF PARKER’S POINT ROAD IN GRAVENHURST FRIDAY MORNING

GRAVENHURST — A morning blaze that sent a huge black plume of smoke across frigid Muskoka Lake destroyed a waterfront cottage-home at the end of Parker’s Point Road.

Nobody was home at the time and there no injuries were reported, the Gravenhurst Fire Department said.

Friday’s fire that was first called in from the Muskoka Wharf just before 8:30 p.m. appears to have been burning before that time on the left northeast side of the road where there are only a handful of permanent residents in winter.

Including town councillor Jo Morphy, a next door neighbour who was away at time.

Steve Quinn was visiting his parents at the Wharf when he saw the smoke and called the Gravenhurst Fire Department, he told MuskokaTODAY.com just minutes after placing the 911 call on his cellphone from the Tin Boathouses overlooking the smoke.

A huge billowing black plume of smoke swept across Muskoka Lake on a fridgid Friday morning as a fire destroyed a cottage home on Parker’s Point Road in Gravenhurst. PHOTO Mark Clairmont MuskokaTODAY.com

Firefighters were quick to respond to West Gravenhurst blaze.

But they initially weren’t sure of the exact location, other than that Quinn said told them he could see the massive billowing black plume across Gravenhurst Bay from where the Segwun and Wenonah II winter.

Crews were on hand well in to this afternoon, at the Wolff family residence at 1217 Parker’s Point Road, as they dealt with the freezing cold and a temperature that threatened -30 degrees early on.

Firefighters were busy ferrying tanker truckloads of water to the scene from a fire hydrant a few kilometres back toward town behind the Home Building Centre on Hwy. 169.

As of noon there was no indication of the exact extent of damage or its cost.