A Revelstoke resident scrambled to save his humble home with a spray bottle and a pot of water as he waited for Revelstoke Fire Rescue Service to respond to a 911 call late Saturday morning, February 14.
“Upon…fire crews quickly pulled apart the exterior wall exposing the fire and extinguishing it from the exterior,” Fire Chief Rob Girard said in a statement on Monday, February 16. “The one occupant of the residence was out of the building when fire crews first arrived on scene and had made an attempt to extinguish it himself with a spray bottle and a pot of water. ”
Faulty electrical installation of an exterior light by the previous tenant of the small cabin on Wilson Street caused an electrical short and fire in an exterior wood chipped insulated wall, Girard said.
Firefighters extinguished and overhauled the fire in just under an hour, with no injuries to any of the 23 responding Fire Personnel. The Fire Department responded with two fire trucks, Tender 5, Rescue 1 and two command vehicles.
“What I find troubling is that the unit had no smoke alarms whatsoever, and while I was investigating the fire, I discovered two other units of this rental complex that were missing them as well,” he said. , said the Fire Chief.
The service installed a new smoke alarm in the unit that had the fire and at the request of the other tenants, it installed two others.
“We keep smoke alarms on our Fire Engines and Command Vehicles for instances just like these,” Girard said. “We are glad we can make things safer for these people.”
He said everyone should have working smoke alarms in their homes at all times. “It’s a sound we all can live with,” Girard said.
