Investigation into the cause of the Friday morning house fire in Saanich is underway.
The Saanich Fire Department responded to the structure fire in the 3200-block of Linwood Avenue just before 8 a.m. on Friday morning with six vehicles and seventeen firefighter, noted Platoon Capt. David Elder, who was working on one of the ladder trucks that attended the scene.
The fire was stubborn and while crews were able to control it quickly, it continued to burn in the attic space for a long time, Elder explained. The fire took about three hours to extinguish.
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Several neighbours noted hearing explosions as the house caught fire and Elder said this is common; as pressure builds up inside the home, the windows can break and let in gusts of air which can cause the “woosh or bang noise.”
Investigators have been inside the home in an effort to confirm the sequence of events and the origin of the fire. The cause of the structure fire has yet to be determined as investigations can take a long time, said Elder.
However, fire crews found no evidence of an actual explosion or any malfeasance on the property.
“We didn’t see anything at the house that gave us concern,” he said.
There was only person home during the fire and she managed to escape before the crews arrived. The fire department did not have updates on her condition, but confirmed she was taken to hospital.
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Little fires continued to burn inside the home throughout the day as pieces of drywall tumbled to the ground so onlookers may have seen smoke and steam billowing long after the fire was extinguished, Elder explained.
He noted that this wasn’t just a contents fire that could be extinguished inside. The contents of the home were beyond repair and it’s not likely that the structure can be fixed, he said.
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