A family has been displaced just days before Christmas by a destructive house fire on Friday night, in the 10900 block of 241st Street in Maple Ridge.
At approximately 10 p.m., firefighters arrived to a reported basement fire to find heavy flames from the rear of the two-story home.
Deputy Fire Chief Michael Van Dop said the five occupants of the house were home at the time, and were alerted to the fire by a smoke detector. One person was sleeping. He said it was a fast-developing blaze, and by the time all the occupants got out of the house all had suffered smoke inhalation and one a suspected fracture.
All five were taken to hospital by ambulance, and at least two were still in hospital on Saturday morning.
“If there’s a message here, it would be that working smoke alarms save lives,” said Van Dop.
The houses are close together in the cul de sac, and crews were able to contain the fire to just the one house, but it was a stubborn blaze and took hours to put the fire completely out.
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Van Dop said firefighters finally got it under control at 1 a.m. on Saturday morning, and were on the scene all night. At 9:30 a.m. Saturday smoke was still drifting from the house.
There was extensive damage to all three floors. Firefighters have yet to reveal the cause of the fire, but Van Dop said their investigation may be limited by the stability of the heavily damaged structure.
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