A family with eight children escaped their burning home in Nanaimo last night.
Nanaimo Fire Rescue responded from four fire halls to the burning house in the 100 block of Doric Avenue in Harewood at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 17.
Geoff Whiting, Nanaimo Fire Rescue assistant chief of operations, said the house was ablaze when firefighters got to the scene.
B次元官网网址淎ll four stations were assigned to it,B次元官网网址� Whiting said. B次元官网网址淓ngine 1 had been out on a medical call, so they were already out and arrived very quickly, within a couple minutes. They found heavy fire on arrival, which also was affecting a couple cars and a travel trailer in the driveway. Everyone had self-evacuated.B次元官网网址�
Whiting said one person was taken to hospital to be checked over for smoke inhalation and other occupants were also checked over at hospital as a precaution.
Firefighters attacked the fire from the exterior of the house to knock the fire down quickly and then proceeded to work to snuff out the blaze that had worked its way into the interior of the structure.
B次元官网网址淭here was a concern of exposure to a neighbouring house, but they managed to prevent any spread of the fire to the neighbouring house with the quick attack, so that was good,B次元官网网址� Whiting said.
Whiting said 13 people were displaced by the fire and a pet cat was unaccounted for Tuesday night.
A man, who asked to be identified only as the familyB次元官网网址檚 grandfather, and an 18-year-old youth were at the house Wednesday morning. The grandfather said it was the youth who discovered the fire.
B次元官网网址淗e looked out the side door of the house and saw a wall of flame,B次元官网网址� the grandfather said. B次元官网网址淚n his panic, fortunately, he slammed the door and started yelling.B次元官网网址�
He then ran through the house and made sure the other six children B次元官网网址� who range in age from 2 to 12 B次元官网网址� who were in the home at the time got out safely. The parents who were also home at the time exited the house with the youngest children .
The 18-year-old ran back into the house to make sure the two remaining older children had escaped. They had fled out the back of the house into the back yard.
B次元官网网址淭he neighbourhood was terrificB次元官网网址次元官网网址� the grandfather said. B次元官网网址淎fter I got here the neighbours were showing up with bags and with used clothing to help out because the kids were all in their PJs.B次元官网网址�
The home is a rental and the grandfather did not know if the family has tenantsB次元官网网址� insurance. He said his daughter had just made an offer to purchase a house earlier on the day of the fire.
Nanaimo Fire Rescue investigators were starting work to determine the origin of the fire today, May 18.
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