A West Vancouver firefighter was injured and two adjacent homes caught fire in a three-alarm blaze that reduced a house to ash late Saturday night.
Three fire trucks from West Vancouver Fire Department arrived on Ottawa Avenue at 11:15 p.m. to find a two-storey home fully engulfed before calling in backup.
“We call it a get-big-fast, “ fire department spokesperson Martin Ernst said. “(We) broke into three teams and did a fantastic job of keeping the neighbours’ homes undamaged as much as possible.”
The fire spread into the attic of one neighbouring home, which firefighters were able to contain and extinguish. The roof from the original burning home fell against the house on the other side, which firefighters were able to put out fast.
“The fire moved through the house very quickly,” Ernst said. “And any kind of prevailing wind can blow the fire, flames, and heat into another home and that’s likely what happened here.
Neighbours said the house, which was purchased last month, was undergoing renovations but was unoccupied.
Ernst said the investigation into the cause will be challenging as there is not much left of the home.
“(There’s) a lot of hand digging and hard work – it’s like being an archaeologist; basically you dig down through layers looking for clues as to how this fire started,” Ernst said.
“One floor is missing and we have a basement; we call these black holes.”
A senior firefighter was taken to hospital after injuring his leg during the incident.
This is the third upscale home to be destroyed by fire on the North Shore in the past three months.
In January a home listed for $2-million burned in Lions Bay after a car battery plugged into a charger caught fire.
In December arson was blamed for a $2.5-million West Vancouver home that was destroyed.
