UPDATE 1:21 p.m.:
Out looking for an element for his upstairs stove, a Vernon homeowner’s downstairs wood stove may have caused him grief.
The man, who did not want to give his name, had been to five different places before finding the elusive element when he returned to his home in the 6400 block of Blue Jay Road just before 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 10, and thought he saw smoke coming from the house.
“I came home and thought, ‘Funny, that looks like smoke by the door.’ I opened the door and came in and yeh, it’s going. I need to get down to try and close the (basement) door. I started to go downstairs but, no, I gotta come back out. I can’t go down there. Too much smoke,” said the homeowner.
“I grabbed a bucket of water that happened to be sitting in the sink that I was going to use for some plants in the shop out back and came around the side and threw the water in but it was already going right across all the floor joists. It was gone.”
A second occupant of the house was not at home when the fire started. The man has owned the fully insured home for more than a year.
He believes the fire started in the area of the basement’s wood stove, which he confirmed was going.
Vernon Fire Rescue Services had three trucks on-scene and a number of firefighters battling the blaze.
The homeowner was hoping a 1930s-style Nash Lafayette vintage car he has been restoring was saved.
ORIGINAL
Vernon firefighters are responding to a house fire in the 6400 block of Blue Jay Road.
The home is fully involved. Two fire trucks are on scene with BC Ambulance and hydro.
The homeowner said he was out of the house looking for an element for his upstairs range, but when he came home around 11:30 a.m., he thought he saw smoke.
When he went in, he found the basement full of smoke that forced him out.
The homeowner believes the fire started in the basement near the wood stove, which was in use at the time.
No one else was in the house. The homeowner noted the house is insured.
House fire on #VernonBC‘s Blue Jay Road https://t.co/mutpd0RUWP
— Vernon Morning Star (@VernonNews) December 10, 2019
At 12:33 p.m., power was cut to the home.
More information to come.
A home is on fire in the Blue Jay Subdivision in #Vernon @VernonNews pic.twitter.com/gIr1ekrdyB
— CaitlinClow (@caitleerach) December 10, 2019
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