A fire at a residence on Sutherland Avenue in Wildwood on December 29 in the early morning hours caused extensive damage to the home.
Deputy fire chief Rocky Swanson, who was part of the response team, said that at 2:28 am, the fire department received a dispatch to respond to 6448 Sutherland Avenue for a structure fire.
“We responded and stopped the fire from spreading to other structures, however, the home was fully involved upon our arrival,” said Swanson. “Two adults escaped unharmed, however, they have lost their home and multiple pets.”
Swanson said the fire was stubborn and difficult to knock out because of the construction style of the house.
“I do not know the cause yet and I do not know the exact point of origin, either,” said Swanson. “No firefighters were harmed and we wrapped it up around 6 am.”
Fire chief Terry Peters said the firefighters began an immediate attack upon arrival. He said the house is most likely a write-off, but that is in the insurance company’s hands.
“There’s significant damage,” added Peters.
He said this is the third significant fire that Powell River Fire Rescue has responded to in 10 days. There was a house fire on Fernwood Avenue on December 19, a house fire on Strathcona Avenue on Christmas Day, plus the most recent fire.
Peters said the Christmas Day fire happened during the afternoon in a bedroom of a home.
He said that as the fire chief, he wants to remind residents that nothing in one’s home is worth their life.
For the Strathcona fire, the blaze was contained to the room of origin but there was a real problem with people trying to get back into the house.
“Our crews actually had to rescue people out of the house because they were trying to get back into it,” said Peters. “If you should ever be unfortunate to have a fire in your home, there is nothing in that home that is worth your life. The crews come in and we do our jobs. If there are people in the house it changes the game for us because we risk a lot to save a lot.”
Peters said the Sutherland fire is still under investigation.
He said the investigation into the Fernwood fire is complete, with the fire department knowing where and how the fire started. At Sutherland, the fire department is just in the throes of trying to figure out what went wrong, according to Peters.
He said all three fires in late December were an “all-call page,” which means that all resources are summoned, including career staff and paid on-call staff.
“If you’re a member of our department and you’re off, we’ll call you back on large fires,” said Peters. “All three of these fires were that kind of a call.”
He said, however, that numbers on scene have not been ideal. For the Sutherland fire, the department still didn’t have as much staff as he would have liked, even with the all-call page.
“At the end of the day, we certainly need more staff,” said Peters, “to have a comfort level of response for the community and we’re struggling.”
