VICTORIA -- An apartment building in Courtenay was evacuated Thursday night after a fire broke out in a second-storey unit.
According to the Courtenay Fire Department, the fire at the Washington Inn Apartments on Ryan Road started in a suite that belongs to a single occupant who was not inside at the time of the fire.
"He's not in the suite right now, we're still trying to figure out where he's at," said Courtenay fire chief Dan Bardonnex Thursday.
Fortunately, the fire was contained to just the bedroom and kitchen areas of the unit, and did not spread to adjacent suites, says Bardonnex.
"With any apartment you’re worried about whether or not everyone is going to hear the alarm," he said. "[You're worried] whether or not they’re going to get out and of course whether the fire is going to travel up to the suite above it – and if they even know about it."
A tenant of the building tells CTV News that they were alerted to the fire before the fire department arrived.
"[Someone] said 'I smell smoke, are you coming?'" says the tenant. "So I grabbed my boots and put on my backpack and when we rounded the corner, we saw the smoke and the fire trucks hadn't arrived yet."
Bardonnex says that crews knocked down the fire quickly, and that no injuries have been reported.
The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.
