West Vancouver fire investigators are working to determine the cause of a blaze that caused heavy damage to an upper Dundarave home Thursday evening.
Crews got the 9-1-1 dispatch just before 8 p.m., when family members noticed the smoke and quickly got out of the house in the 2100-block of Palmerston Avenue.
"It got going pretty good. It was touch and go with whether we were going to be able to save the house or not but we made a couple tactical moves and things worked out in our favour and nobody was hurt and the building's still there,"
said assistant fire chief Tony D'Angelo.
Crews initially attacked the fire from inside the house but had to fall back and fight the flames from outside to prevent it from spreading to
nearby homes and trees for a short time before going back in to finish the job.
Although there is no obvious cause for the fire, D'Angelo said it appears to have started in the basement. An engineer has been called in to see if the rest of the house is salvageable.
At the time, a mother and two teens were home.
"They played it smart in a sense. They didn't waste time gathering valuables, cellphones, that sort of thing," D'Angelo said.
He added the firefighters were happy the outcome wasn't worse.
"When you're faced with an unfortunate circumstance like a fire of any kind and you come out of it without anybody getting hurt, it's a good thing."
.png;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)
