A Halfmoon Bay teen is being called a hero for his fast and fearless response to a fire that badly damaged his family’s home — the main house at the well-known bed and breakfast Halfmoon Haven — on Wednesday, May 20.
Chris Fletcher said his 17-year-old son Braydon’s quick actions likely prevented the fire from destroying the entire house as well as a 500-year-old Douglas fir tree on the property.
“It was one of the most heroic things I’ve ever seen,” he said.
The fire started on the second-storey back deck about 10 minutes after Braydon lit the barbecue and the propane tank release valve blew out.
“The propane tank blew and I thought the whole house was going to blow,” Fletcher said. “I was in the garden and saw this 20-foot flame, like a dragon flame. Braydon got the fire extinguisher and went back upstairs. He just went into full warrior mode. He fought it until the fire department arrived.”
After emptying the fire extinguisher, Braydon took charge of a hose. He began dousing the flames climbing up the wall of the house and managed to put out the “dragon flame” shooting up from the propane tank.
By keeping water on the propane tank and the burning wall beside it, Fletcher was told by officials, Braydon might have prevented the propane tank from exploding.
Halfmoon Bay Volunteer Fire Department members were practising at the fire hall when the call came in at 8:24 p.m. The first vehicle left four minutes later, Greg Phelps, the department’s administrator, said. “So we were there within a few minutes,” he said.
The fire, meanwhile, spread up the wall and into the soffits, engulfing sections of the roof.
Thirty firefighters with five pieces of apparatus battled the blaze for about four hours, breaking through the ceiling to extinguish spot fires.
“They poured thousands of gallons of water in the centre because it kept spreading, so the whole bottom, everything’s saturated. We’ve pulled out a lot of the stuff now, but most of our stuff is completely toast,” Fletcher said.
While not completely gutted, “three-quarters of the house is going to have to be torn back to the studs,” and the roof will have to be replaced.
No estimate of the damage was available, but Fletcher said the building, contents and loss of income are covered by insurance.
The bed and breakfast was fully booked until November; now the Fletchers are hoping to reopen in 2016. The family has been living in a cottage on the property since the fire.
The investigation into the cause of the fire was still continuing as of Wednesday. One possibility is that the propane tank was overfilled.
Despite the devastating loss, Fletcher said he has been uplifted by the “overwhelming swell of support” from the community and by the example Braydon set during the fire.
“As I watched my son fight this fire, I saw in him something that is a very rare quality, which was a courage void of fear but at the same time giving full respect to the fire and its power,” Fletcher wrote on Facebook.
“Braydon showed me a depth of courage I have not witnessed before even in myself. This is when I knew my son became a man. He had just completed his last rites of passage before entering his manhood.”
For his part, Braydon, a Grade 12 student at Chatelech Secondary, said he wasn’t afraid during his intense minutes fighting the fire.
“What’s the saying? Fight or flight,” he said.
