Fire destroys half of seniors’ care home

When the call came in just after 8 p.m. Thursday about a fire at a duplex that serves as a care home for elderly residents, Courtenay firefighters happened to be at the station doing physical training.

“They just hopped on the fire truck — we were able to get to the scene in minutes,” said Jonathan Welsh, deputy fire chief for the Courtenay Fire Department. “From the time the call came in to the fire crew arriving was nine minutes.”

When the fire crew arrived, they found half of the duplex fully involved. All the occupants from the two-storey structure — three on one side and two on the other, including an on-site supervisor — escaped without injury.

Welsh said it was fortunate the fire crew was able to quickly knock the fire down, as materials used in the construction of houses in the area — including oriented strand board (OSB) panels — burn quickly. By the time the flames were extinguished, one side of the duplex was burnt to the studs.

Firefighters managed to contain the fire to the affected side of the building, preventing it from spreading to the other side. The other side of the duplex did not suffer damage that would make it uninhabitable, said Welsh.

He estimates damage could run between $600,000 and $1 million. Fire investigators were at the site on Friday. A cause of the fire has not been determined.

The Courtenay Fire Department, established in 2015, is made up of seven career and 48 volunteer firefighters serving a population of 38,000 residents. Its fleet includes three fire engines, one aerial ladder truck, one rescue truck and a water tanker.