Seniors escape Comox Valley house fire with 'not even the clothes on their back'
A Friday morning fire has destroyed a home in Merville, B.C., but the elderly couple inside managed to escape the flames.
Crews from Oyster River Fire Rescue responded to an abandoned 911 call from a home on Winn Road at approximately 6:45 a.m. and then received a second call from a neighbour indicating a structure was on fire.
"When our first officer arrived on scene, he unfortunately found a fully involved structure fire," said fire chief Bruce Green. "Unfortunately it was an elderly couple, it looks like they made it out with not even the clothes on their back so it was fairly close for them getting out of the house."
Crews' efforts were complicated by the fact the home was located at the end of a long driveway that hadn’t been plowed and still had a significant amount of snow on it.
"There’s probably eight inches to a foot of snow on the ground, a long rural driveway, our trucks had issues getting up there, it’s probably three-quarters of a kilometre long driveway so we’ve stretched basically every piece of hose we have off the truck to make it to the scene," Green said.
While the house was destroyed prior to their arrival, Green says the incident serves a reminder to residents in rural areas to try to keep access to their homes clear.
“When your house is on fire, every second counts for us to get there and if we have challenges like today, it takes us a while to get to the fire,” Green said.
He also encourages people to check on their neighbours, especially seniors.
“If you have a tractor or something like that, help your elderly neighbours, shovel their driveways, get their driveways done even if they don’t drive up and down the driveway, for emergency services to get here,” he said.
In this case the couple had to be assisted down the driveway to the midway point so they could access the ambulance. They were eventually taken to hospital to be checked over.
Crews will have to return to the scene later to try to determine the cause of the fire.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.