Revelstoke firefighters scrambled during the first week of December, fighting two fight residential fires in three days.
The first incident occurred during the early morning of of Saturday, December 3 when they were called to attend to a vehicle fire had spread to a carport.
“Upon arrival, fire crews quickly actioned a fully involved vehicle fire as well as the attached carport beside the vehicle that was also on fire,” Fire Chief Rob Girard said in a statement. “All five occupants of the residence were out of the building when fire crews arrived on scene.”
All five occupants of the residence in the 600 Block of Second Street West were out of the building when fire crews arrived on scene at 6:06 am.
Firefighters extinguished and overhauled the fire in just under 30 minutes, with no injuries to any of the 16 responding fire personnel. The Fire Rescue Service responded to the 911 call with two fire trucks, Tender 5, and one command vehicle.
Girard said the cause of the fire was undetermined.
“Fortunately the tenant was home and woke early to go skiing and saw his vehicle on fire and a quick fire department response prevented the fire from spreading into the home’s roof soffit,” he said.
That was the first fire this week. The second occurred on Tuesday, December
6, at 11 pm when the Fire Rescue Services responded to a 911 call of a residential structure fire in the 400 block of Mackenzie Avenue.
“Upon arrival fire crews rapidly actioned the fire in the second-storey bedroom,” Girard said, adding that early detection by the tenants prevented this from being a fully involved structure fire.
“We were within minutes of that transition,” he said. “Initially we were not sure if all occupants of the residence were out of the building, but (eventually) did determine all seven were safely outside.”
Firefighters extinguished and overhauled the fire in just under an hour, with no injuries to any of the 14 responding personnel.
The fire department responded with two fire trucks, and one command vehicle. The Fire Chief advised that Emergency Social Services was activated and assisted the seven residents in finding lodging. Fire Inspector/Assistant Chief Echlin is currently conducting the fire investigation.
Chief Girard wants to remind everyone to have working smoke alarms in your residence at all times. “It’s a sound we all can live with,” he said, adding that residents can perform their own residential safety audits by:
- Testing your smoke alarms;
- Checking that you have functional CO detectors;
- Ensuring that you are not overloading electrical receptacles; and
- Cleaning your wood and pellet stove chimneys regularly.
“Also, during this cold weather be very careful when using any space heaters or candles,” Girard said. “If you do a home safety audit today, it could save your life or the lives of your loved ones.”
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