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North Shore home burns

Fire destroyed the roof of a local home Thursday, but no one was hurt, thanks to a quick response by local firefireghters.
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Nine firefighters responded Thursday to a house at 4230 Crescent Bay Road when the roof went up in flames.

Fire destroyed the roof of a local home Thursday, but no one was hurt, thanks to a quick response by local firefireghters.

North Shore fire department deputy chief Fred Schneider says the call came around 4:50 p.m. of a structural fire at 4230 Crescent Bay Road.

“When we arrived the whole roof was on fire,” he said. “The owners were home inside. A neighbour banged on the door and informed them.”

Five firefighters from the North Shore department responded with an engine along with four firefighters and a tanker from the Balfour-Harrop department, as part of a mutual aid agreement.

Schneider says the fire was knocked down within 20 minutes, but mop-up took another two hours.

“Once we got the original knockout, it was just [a matter of] getting up on the roof through the attic and putting out all the spot fires.”

Although the roof was lost, and the home suffered smoke and water damage, it is believed to be salvageable.

There were neighbouring homes on both sides, but Schneider says he wasn’t concerned about the fire spreading.

The cause is undetermined but not considered suspicious.

However, regional fire chief Terry Swan, who was on the scene, noted the residents had their woodstove going.

“It’s possible some embers out of the stove landed on the cedar shakes. I’m fairly certain that’s where the fire started,” Swan said.

“Once the shakes got going, it pretty much did the roof in, but the guys did a great job of extinguishing it. It was a very, very good save.”

Swan said it was lucky the fire was noticed early, which gave firefighters a chance to save the house.

BC Ambulance personnel were also on scene, but there were no injuries.