Firefighters and other City of Nanaimo workers rushed to respond to a house fire on Estevan Road this afternoon.
Crews were called to the 1900 block of Estevan at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 22, and arrived on scene to find flames visible at the back of a house.
No one was injured in the fire, but two elderly people were helped to evacuate from the home by City of Nanaimo workers, who were working on infrastructure nearby and rushed to the scene. The men were checked over at the scene by paramedics for smoke inhalation and were sent to hospital for observation. None were willing to be identified or interviewed.
Lieut. Terrence Horst, Nanaimo Fire Rescue, said the fire started at the back of the house, possibly do to a sauna on the back deck, but it was not known if the sauna was operating at the time of the fire and what actually sparked the blaze has yet to be determined.
“There was a fire on the back deck,” Horst said. “It looked like it possibly could have been started by a cedar sauna. Flames were showing – flames were above the roof line – and when we first got here we were told there were people inside, but then we confirmed they were outside.”
Horst said the back deck and roof of the house suffered fire damage. There was little fire damage to the interior of the house, but it did suffer smoke and water damage.
“We rolled up and there was some city workers outside and we were told that they went in and got the people out before we got there,” Horst said. “The city workers have been treated with some oxygen for light smoke [inhalation].”
Nanaimo Professional Firefighters IAFF added in a social media post that “a quick response by fire crews saved the residence and stopped the fire from extending to neighbouring houses.”
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