Occupants of a Campbell River home managed to escape a house fire that destroyed much of their residence on the evening of Oct. 29.
Campbell River Fire Chief Dan Verdun says his department received several 911 calls about the blaze shortly before 8 p.m. and arrived to find the home in flames in the Stories Beach area of South Island Highway and McGimpsey Road.
”When our crews arrived we did find this house fully involved, the flames were about 30 feet in the air” Verdun says.
Fire crews' first priority was to extinguish the blaze in the first home, and they were concerned it would spread to nearby homes on either side.
“The construction is wood frame with shiplap on the outside so that might have expedited the fire growth a little bit,” Verdun adds.
Three doors away, neighbour Colleen Jones thought she was hearing fireworks go off but quickly realized the situation was much more serious.
”I went to the far window in the bathroom and could see piles of burning embers. I ran outside and I just saw the house was totally engulfed.”
She immediately went to check on an elderly neighbour as she witnessed the fire. Jones says the home's occupants, including two young children and two dogs, escaped unharmed.
”They all got out but they didn’t have a chance to get anything,” she says.
Jones notes neighbours were hosing down their homes and believes a lack of wind at the time prevented things from getting worse. Verdun says the crew's efforts were able to keep the fire from spreading.
”We were able to contain the fire to the original home of origin, stopped the fire from encroaching into the two exposure homes.”
Verdun does not believe the fire to be suspicious and says an investigation would continue to try to determine a cause.
