The Courtenay and Oyster River fire departments responded to a call of a structure fire on Davis Road shortly before noon, Monday, Feb. 8.
A fire that started in the roofing of a workshop on the property ultimately destroyed the building, but there were no injuries to report.
“A spark from (our machinery) must have got blocked and it created a fire in the exhaust,” said Darcy, who owns the property. The workshop is used to sharpen bandsaw blades.
“My coworker spotted it as a spark in the exhaust of the fan. He came down and said he needed my help so we grabbed the fire extinguishers and we sprayed it until we thought it was out. I opened up the hatch to the attic and looked and it was all dark, so I thought we were OK, but then I could hear crackling. So we figured it was down the wall. We said let’s gets some five-gallon buckets, rip the wall out and start dumping it, but by that time it was just too late.”
Darcy said there were three people and a cat in the shop at the time of the fire, and all escaped relatively unscathed. Paramedics on scene were attending to one of the workers, as firefighters contained the blaze.
“They’re just checking him,” Darcy said of the worker. “We all got out before it was out of control. My daughter called 9-1-1 and they said to get out so we got out.”
A total of 26 firefighters from the two departments attended the scene.
“We got the fire knocked down in about 15-20 minutes,” said Courtenay Fire Chief Don Bardonnex. “It started in an exhaust system and went up into the ceiling.”
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terry.farrell@blackpress.ca
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