There was minimal damage to a house on Troy Anne Way, after Nanaimo Fire Rescue put out a chimney fire using a garden hose borrowed from the house's resident.

Capt. Shelby Nickel, with the fire department, said the firefighters wanted to mitigate the damage to the person's home, while also putting out the fire.

"If we used one of our high-pressure hoses it creates a lot of water damage, this way it just mitigates the damage and a minor amount of water is needed to produce the steam to put the fire out," Nickel said. 

After getting permission to borrow the garden hose, two firefighters used a ladder off their truck to climb onto the roof and poured the water down the chimney.

"There was no damage," Nickel said, "It was just the buildup inside the chimney that was on fire, and with nowhere to go out [the fire] was backing into the house a little bit." 

Following the incident, Nickel said he wanted to remind residents about the importance of keeping chimneys regularly cleaned, and changing smoke detector batteries regularly. He estimated that this has been about the 10th chimney fire call the department has responded to this season.