On Monday morning Rachel McFaddin did what most of us have been doing lately — she looked out her window to see how bad the smoke was.
But the Blueberry resident saw something else that gave her cause for concern — a plume of dark smoke.
McFaddin stepped outside and noticed that a truck was on fire in a driveway just a few doors down from hers.
“There was smoke and flames coming out from under the hood,” she said.
She quickly called the fire department and then went for a hose. Other neighbours joined in and they set a sprinkler close to the truck. Another neighbour brought over a fire extinguisher as they waited for the Castlegar Fire Department (CFD) to arrive.
“They had a really, really quick response time,” said McFaddin of the CFD.
“With all the fires happening, your nerves are on edge because you don’t want to see it too close to home. But when you are not wanting to have it too close to home, and you look outside your door and it is really too close to home — you kind of want to jump into action right away.”
The neighbours were at home at the time, but were unaware the fire was happening.
The fire department arrived less than 10 minutes after the call came in, knocked on the door and notified the rather surprised residents that their vehicle was on fire.
CFD brought one command vehicle and one engine to the scene, along with 8 firefighters and was able to extinguish the fire quickly.
Fire Chief Sam Lattanzio said the fire is under investigation, but foul play is not suspected.
