A North Vancouver family is out of their home following a fire in a Hamilton neighbourhood townhouse Saturday.
The family was home at the time when the fire broke out in the storage area beneath a set of stairs around 3:30 p.m.
“Crews arrived on scene. There was smoke showing from one of the units. We did an aggressive interior attack,” said fire chief Dan Pistilli, of the North Vancouver City Fire Department. “It’s fortunate that they were home at the time, for sure. It was early detection, early notification for us.”
Crews knocked the fire down before it could spread to the neighbouring units in the townhouse but heavy fire, smoke and water damage to the main floor means the home is uninhabitable.
“They’re going to be out for quite a while. It will have to be a full restoration on the place,” Pistilli said.
One of the residents of the home tried to put out the flames using a pot of water. He was taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation but was released a short time later, Pistilli said. There were no other injuries.
The family is insured.
The exact cause of the blaze is still under investigation but it appears to be electrical, Pistilli said. The storage area had an extension cord connecting a light inside, something that often worries fire prevention officers.
“They really need to be conscious of what they’re storing, the amount of storage and any kind of electrical appliance they would have in there – a light or anything like that – that creates an extra hazard,” he said.
