The quick response of Metchosin Fire Department crews is being credited with saving a 120-year-0ld home and several other structures on a Metchosin Road farm.
Crews arrived around 3:30 p.m. to find a fairly large grass fire burning on a farm near the Green Acres Golf Course.
The farm’s owner says one of his renters had tried to take advantage of the last hours where open burning was allowed, but winds were high and embers sparked the fire
He says flames spread nearly 200 meters in just minutes
“I couldn’t see for over half an hour, the smoke was that thick,” said Jeff Whitney-Griffiths.
“We got four inches of moss up there, and a bunch of dry grass and pine cones, it was like a great big tinder box.”
He says the farm has been in his family for 150 years.
The flames came close to his home, several vehicles and other structures but damage was kept to a minimum.
“It was very very close to being out of control,” said Whitney-Griffiths.
“Thanks to the Metchosin firefighters, if it weren’t for them, that 120-year-old house could be charred.”
A stretch of Metchosin Road was closed to traffic while crews tamed the flames.
Metchosin Fire Department Chief Stephanie Dunlop reminds residents that open burning season is now closed and won’t begin again until the fall.
“We’re at a high fire hazard rating already this summer,” she said.
Ben O'Hara
