Approximately 60 residents of Athens Creek Retirement Lodge were evacuated at around 8:50 a.m. this morning when a small smoke fire started in a unit.
There were no serious injuries and paramedics treated the resident of the unit where the incident took place. Another resident was trapped in the stairway, but fire crew assisted with that person quickly.
Penticton Fire Chief Larry Watkinson said crews arrived on scene and found smoke in the unit and fire on the stove.
“It looks like there was some material left on the stove and it was turned on,” said Watkinson. “The crews quickly went after the fire, was able to contain it to a small area of that apartment.”
Watkinson said the resident of the unit tried to deal with the fire, but ended up exiting the unit and went outside. The fire chief said it’s important for people to be attentive to what they are doing when cooking on their stove in the morning. He added that residents should make sure they haven’t left anything on their stove that can catch fire.
“The guys did an excellent job considering they have been up all night fighting another fire,” said Watkinson of an incident that took place on Penticton Avenue last night.
Watkinson also praised the efforts of Athens Creek staff who made sure all residents were out of the building. Resident Glenn Dunlop said they were put through a fire drill two weeks ago.
