Kitimat Fire and Ambulance is investigating after a structure fire broke out on Columbia Ave. W Saturday (Jan. 9) evening.
Kitimat Fire Chief Trent Bossence said Kitimat Fire and Ambulance were called to a structure fire at 584 Columbia Ave. W in the trailer park on Saturday evening, just before 6 p.m.
“Crews initially found smoke and flames that had breached one of the four back windows of the residence,” he said.
Bossence said that the crews knocked down the fire from the outside, then entered the home to extinguish the rest of the fire and conduct a search to see if there was anyone still in the home.
Bossence said that crews found no people inside and no person was injured. However, they did find two pets that had succumbed to the smoke inside the building, as the smoke was “pretty intense at the time when we went inside,” he said
Bossence said there were reports of a third pet, but upon doing multiple secondary searches, Kitimat Fire and Ambulance were not able to locate it. He added that the pet’s owner, the man living in the home, said that he didn’t know where the third pet was either, but that it may have gotten out.
Bossence said Kitimat Fire and Ambulance responded with two apparatus and 12 firefighters, as well as one Chief Officer.
“The fire did pose some unique challenges for the crews due to the added construction to the home itself,” he said.
Bossence said the damage to the home is extensive, but that fire crews manage to keep the fire, itself, to its original location the best they could.
“The damage is quite extensive. We did manage to hold…the fire to place of origin, so roughly where it started, so the the room that it started in,” he said. “But just due to the smoke damage, water damage, and then, of course, the fire damage to that area, there’s substantial damage to entire structure.”
Bossence said investigators are currently looking into the cause of the fire, but they’re not treating it as suspicious at this time.
A GoFundMe page has been set up for the renter of the home to help support him at this time.
clare.rayment@northernsentinel.com
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