A large fire in an apartment building on Vancouver Island sent 13 people, including a child, to hospital Sunday.
Crews responded to Parkland Place Apartments in Duncan around 11 a.m. to find flames and smoke pouring out of the building’s lower floors.
The blaze began on the main floor of the building, and Duncan Fire Department Chief Mike McKinley said it was difficult to contain.
“It gutted the first floor, the second floor, kind of did a little bit of damage to the third, and then got up to the ceiling and the roof area of the fourth and damaged three units there that we had to break down and take the ceiling right out of it,” McKinley said.
BC Ambulance Service responded to the scene with five basic ambulances and three advanced life-support ambulances, including two helicopters.
In addition to the 13 people transported to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation, about 80 people have been displaced from their homes, according to North Cowichan Deputy Fire Chief Brad Coleman, who helped fight the blaze. The Cowichan Valley Regional District is helping them find housing, Coleman said.
BC Emergency Health Services told the Canadian Press all of the patients were transported in stable condition, and the two air ambulances were not needed, but responded as a precaution.
This is the second large fire that has engulfed Parkland Place Apartments in the last few years. In January 2014, flames tore through several units, forcing residents out of the building for a few days.
With files from the Canadian Press
