A Nanaimo woman needed treatment for minor smoke inhalation and burns after a fire in the Buttertubs housing complex on the weekend.
Firefighters were called shortly after 9 a.m. Saturday to deal with a fire in a couch in living room of Unit 2, 11 Buttertubs Dr.
“The units are sprinklered, so the sprinkler controlled the fire,” said Capt. Ennis Mond, Nanaimo Fire Rescue’s chief fire prevention officer.
The woman was sleeping in the living room and her niece, visiting with her two children, were sleeping in the suite’s bedroom.
Mond had not determined the exact cause of the fire Tuesday morning, but said it appeared someone tried to extinguish the flames before firefighters arrived to snuff out an area under the couch the automatic sprinkler system was unable to reach.
“The sprinkler went off. The smoke alarm went off. The niece and her children got out of there unscathed,” Mond said.
The fire was contained to the area of the couch and the tenant was treated for minor burns and smoke inhalation.
