Kootenay Boundary Regional Fire Rescue has confirmed a home has been destroyed after a fire broke out around 3:18 p.m. Thursday in the 8400 Block of Highway 22A at Waneta Junction. No one was injured.
Fourteen firefighters responded from Trail, Montrose, and Warfield. It took them about an hour and 20 minutes to get the blaze under control.
Smoke was highly visible from Trail and the Montrose cutoff. Images on social media showed a plume of black smoke being kicked up.
Chief Dan Derby told Vista Radio the home was already a “total loss” when crews arrived, so they went into a defensive mode to protect two neighbouring properties. An adjacent home on the southeast side suffered some minor damage, but the fire didn’t breach the fence or hedges at the back of the property, close to another home.
“I feel really good about the work the crews did to contain the fire to what they arrived to on scene and protect the neighbouring homes,” Derby said.
The fire started in the garage. The couple who lived there got out safely and called 911.
The fire is not considered suspicious. While the cause is unknown, Derby said there was welding and grinding equipment in the garage. Crews were expected to return to the scene Friday, but Derby felt it would be “super challenging” to pinpoint how the fire started.
“I’m not sure with amount of damage we’ll ever be able to clearly determine the exact cause,” he said.
Derby said he appreciates the support of RCMP in managing traffic and Fortis crews, both gas and electric. The highway was closed for a while and a transformer needed to be replaced to restore power to the neighbourhood.
“There were a lot of different this going on with this one incident,” Derby said. “It was a challenging, warm afternoon and a very hot fire. Crews did an excellent job. My hats off to everyone that was there on scene to the work they did.”
However, he added that they had some problems with traffic, where people either did not pull over for emergency vehicles or cut them off. When you see an emergency vehicle either behind you or coming toward you with lights and siren activated, you’re required to signal and pull over to the right safely.
According to BC Assessment, the home, at the corner of the highway and Knight Street, was built in 1953.
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