A fire shortly before midnight on April 13 has left a Keremeos family without a home.
The Keremeos Fire Department responded to the call about the house fire on 9th Avenue and 5th Street late on Tuesday night.
The building was a mobile home with additions, and a tin roof added over the top of both.
By the time they arrived the fire had already made its way up the outer wall and underneath the tin roof. Once it got into the attic, there was nothing firefighters could do.
“With the roof we just couldn’t get at it. We poked some holes in the ends and tried to get some water into it but it was almost impossible,” said fire chief Jordy Bosscha. “The roof basically collapsed through the center part of the house. “
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Firefighters did their best to keep the fire contained and chasing hot spots for the five hours they were on the scene, their efforts made more difficult due to nearby homes and a blowing wind.
“There was a house right next door on the east side, and the people there had evacuated,” said Bosscha. “The wind was blowing it right towards that house, so it was a bit of pucker-power-pray that were able to keep the flames from impinging and starting up the second house, with a row of cedar trees between them.”
The family of two adults and two children, along with their two pets, were awoken by a neighbour and escaped without injury. The family does have family in the area they can stay with, according to the department.
Two engines, a utility vehicle and a rescue truck responded along with 15 members of the fire department to fight the fire.
The fire is currently under investigation.
The next day, the department was called out to a tractor fire on a farm in Cawston at the edge of the fire district around noon.
“It was next to a whole bunch of pallets, bins and farm fuel tanks,” said Bosscha.
The fire was started by accident, although the full details are also under investigation.
The fourteen firefighters who responded to that fire spent an hour and a half including the cleanup.
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