Nine members of the 70 Mile House Volunteer Fire Department (70MHVFD) responded to a house fire callout around 7:15 a.m. on Dec. 15.
Fire chief Cam Robb, who lives across the road from the burning double-wide mobile in the 71 Mile Subdivision, got the callout and says he went to the scene and thought there was a chimney fire.
Two occupants and their pets were out of their home when he arrived.
At the same time, a neighbour arrived with a ladder and a big fire extinguisher.
“I went up the ladder with the fire extinguisher and I expected to see flames coming out of the chimney, but they weren’t, they were coming out of the melted plastic roof vents.”
Robb says he used the extinguisher and it suppressed the flames for about 30 seconds, but they flared up right away. The fire chief adds he realized the attic was almost engulfed and knew he was dealing with an internal structure fire.
Robb says he asked for assistance and 100 Mile House Fire Rescue (100MHFR) responded with a pumper and a tender.
Upon their arrival, the command was turned over to 100MHF.
“We pulled our pumper out of the way. They set up their bladder and their tender and our tender started shuttling water [from our well] to them.”
Robb estimates they pumped around 25,000 gallons of water on the mobile home, which was totally demolished.
Some of the local firefighters had to go back on Dec. 17 to extinguish a flare-up under the collapsed ceiling and roof.
A Go-Fund-Me has been started for the family.
