‘The roofs are gone’: Two homes damaged in Campbell River fire, witness says

A nearly blind, 82-year-old woman escaped a house fire with help from a good Samaritan in Campbell River on Friday afternoon.

Rita Hall’s home is one of two that went up in flames along Twillingate Road.

She tells CHEK News she was in her living room when she smelled the smoke and spotted the flames.

“I heard this bang and all my lights went out. I thought, ‘that’s strange,’ and then I smelled smoke,” said Hall.

“So I went to investigate, y’know, to see where it was, and I walked around my house and I went up to the corner and saw a little flame. Then it started accelerating to get larger, so I went to my door and started hollering for help. I yelled about four times.”

A woman who was driving by heard Hall’s calls for help. She stopped her car and pulled the senior to safety.

A young family that lives next door also escaped unharmed, but Hall says her three cats are still missing.

‘Fire progressed quite rapidly’

People are asked to avoid Twillingate Road as fire crews are working to put out a structure fire on Friday afternoon.

As of 3:30 p.m., the road is closed to vehicle traffic until further notice, and members of the public are asked to follow the directions from city staff and emergency personnel on site.

Douglas Waller with Blackwolf Photopro says he was working in his front yard when he saw a plume of smoke, so he went to the area to see what was happening.

“We’re not far from the Campbell River Airport, and we see helicopters and airplanes going overhead all the time, and the first thing that came to mind was, ‘That looks like the smoke from an aircraft fire,’” Waller said in a Zoom interview with CHEK News.

“Very dark, very black and extremely huge cloud coming up over Willow Point, but thank goodness it was not an aircraft fire.”

Waller says from what he heard on scene from firefighters and paramedics is that all the residents and animals got out safe from the fire. CHEK News has reached out to Campbell River Fire and BC Emergency Health Services and will update when a response is received.

When he arrived on scene, Waller says he noticed one house was on fire, and it had spread to the neighbouring house.

“From the people around as I listened to the conversation, it sounded like the fire had started in the house on the left,” Waller said.

“The fire progressed quite rapidly, and unfortunately, burned the house just to the west of it…and vehicles were also being burned as well.”

Waller says from what he could tell, both houses would not be salvageable due to the extent of the damage.

“The fire was so extreme it burned from the west side of the house to the east,” he said. “The roofs are gone, they’ve collapsed. The house off to the west, it was completely collapsed. Well, it will collapse with the extent of the fire.”

This is a developing story. More details will be added as they become available.

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