People are displaced after a fire at Songhees Nation damaged a house and destroyed vehicles and a trailer, where occupants were forced to jump from windows.
View Royal Fire was called to the blaze on Cooper Road just after 3 p.m. Monday, Sept. 18, according to Fire Chief Paul Hurst, who says firefighters could see a column of smoke when leaving the station.
Hurst says an initial report indicated that a trailer and a vehicle were on fire at Songhees Nation, and when crews got there six vehicles and the trailer were up in flames. Due to strong winds, the fire was also spreading to the house next door and to 20-foot-high blackberry bushes.
Footage sent to CHEK News during the fire shows someone using a garden house to douse the flames.
Hurst says no one was in the house at the time, but three people were in the trailer. They weren’t injured after jumping from windows, but responders from West Shore Emergency Support Services were there to provide aid.
Crews from the Colwood, Esquimalt, and Langford also helped View Royal crews battle the fire, and Hurst says 23 firefighters were on scene.
He says the house was damaged and full of smoke, but it wasn’t destroyed like the trailer where the fire originated.
Hurst says the fire was accidental and started on the trailer’s front porch, adding that “possibly misplaced smokers’ material” like a cigarette butt was picked up by the wind and landed on an upholstered chair.
The trailer’s occupants are now displaced.
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Ethan Morneau
