Terrace Fire Department responded to a grass fire that spread up the side of a seniors’ complex building on Lakelse Avenue Wednesday afternoon.
At least a dozen firefighters arrived around 3:20 p.m. to reports of a grass fire to discover it had spread along the side of the Twin Rivers Estates complex and up to the south unit of the building.
Dave Jephson, Terrace deputy fire chief, said a contractor who was working in the area noticed smoke and saw a section of grass had caught fire in the middle of the lawn.
The contractor ran over, grabbed a garden hose and started spraying water. But with a little bit of wind, the fire blew and set fire to the hedge, igniting the side of the building.
That’s when crews arrived and hit the house with 1,500 gallons of water, putting it out within minutes. They then began spraying the lawn and siding with flame-retardant foam.
Because of the dry conditions, there was a huge concern for firefighters of the flames spreading.
“That truly stopped the fire from taking off and these four units being burnt,” Jephson said. ” You can see this fire shot up within two minutes, and this is the damage that it did.”
He said the two residents in the south unit were home at the time of the fire.
“Somebody banged on her door and said ‘Oh my god, you got to get out,’ Jephson said of the occupant in the top suite.
“She quickly ran upstairs to grab some personal belongings and noticed fire outside of her window. She quickly shut the window, which again is another perfect reason why there was less damage.”
The occupant in the basement suite had a window blown out because of the heat, spraying glass inside. But Jephson said both residents are in good health with no significant damage done to the interior.
“Truly just very fortunate that nobody got injured and the fire was knocked down quickly.”
RCMP reopened the Old Skeena bridge around 5 p.m., and crews will be doing rotations over each hour to make sure there’s no chance of the fire returning. The cause is unknown.
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