The Bouchie Lake Volunteer Fire Department was called out to a fully involved house fire on Tuesday (Feb 17) morning.
Fire Chief Harald Bartel says the call came in at around 7 o’clock to Norwood Road.
“On arrival we saw smoke pouring out of the basement and starting to come out the upper levels of the house. We went down behind the house and attacked the fire through a window that had been burnt out already.’
He says they were on scene for around 6 hours.“There were lots of what we call overhauls, so when the top floor falls into the basement we have to put a lot of water in there to make sure there’s no debris burning underneath the rubble. We used over 16,000 gallons of water.”
Bartel says there were people home at the time.
“There were three occupants inside and there were, one occupant suffered a little bit of smoke inhalation. We treated him in the fire truck and an ambulance took him to the hospital. The other two occupants were just fine.’
Bartel says unfortunately the house was a complete loss as “the flames went through the ceiling from the basement upstairs and burnt right through the roof.”
He says the Quesnel Fire Department provided mutual aid with an engine, a tender, and four members.
Bouchie Lake had 9 members on scene.
Bartel says they also got a bit of an assist from the neighbours.
“We also want to thank neighbours for bringing us some coffee and some treats, and also a shout out to the CRD for coming out and representing. One of the guys (Roger Hollander) from 100 Mile drove all the way up just to make sure we were all good
Hollander is the Regional Fire Chief for the CRD.
Bartel says the cause of the fire remains under investigation, adding that all they know right now is that it started in the basement.
– Files from George Henderson, My Cariboo Now staff
