While trying to save people potentially trapped inside a burning home on Binnacle Avenue in Sechelt, Sunshine Coast RCMP stumbled upon a sophisticated grow operation with more than 800 marijuana plants.
Shortly after midnight on May 28, RCMP were dispatched to the fire along with the Sechelt fire department following a 9-1-1 call from a passerby who heard a fire alarm and saw smoke coming from the home.
Because the RCMP arrived on scene shortly before the fire department, officers entered the burning home to ensure no one was trapped inside.
It was then they found what media relations officer Cpl. Steve Chubey described as a "sophisticated marijuana grow operation."
When the firefighters arrived on scene moments later, they too assumed a family was inside and rushed in to battle the blaze.
"We sure think that when we arrive at one o'clock in the morning at a residential house and we don't know that it's a grow-op," said fire Chief Bill Higgs. "We don't have that information. In fact, the very nature that it's clandestine means that they try to hide the identity of it as a grow-op, so of course we show up and we think there's a family in there and we go in there and risk our lives for no reason at all."
According to Higgs, the home was unoccupied at the time of the fire. He added that the risk for firefighters is two-fold when entering a clandestine grow-op.
"Of course there's the hidden danger of unfused raw power going into the building, which can electrocute us, and then of course if we go wandering through there, there's all sorts of possibilities for booby traps that safeguard the grow-op against grow rips," he said. "We've had that before, so it's just highly, highly dangerous to the firefighters."
Once the fire department realized the house fire was actually a clandestine marijuana grow-op, Higgs said firefighters knocked the fire down and exited the building.
"As soon as we saw there was something suspicious going on, we kind of took a step back because, of course, if you spray water on unfused electrical components, you can kill a fireman pretty quick," he said.
The fire department called BC Hydro to come and turn off the power to the home at the street level.
"Then we worked with our training just to make sure we could get in and get rid of all the hot spots without destroying evidence, for one, but also without tripping any trip wires or setting off any booby traps that could be in there. We didn't find any this time, but we have in the past," Higgs said.
RCMP obtained a search warrant and after the fire was extinguished, entered the home and seized more than 800 marijuana plants from three rooms. The plants were all at different stages of production.
They also seized "a large quantity of packaged marijuana bud," according to Chubey.
Higgs said firefighters revisited the scene the following day to determine the cause of the blaze.
"The main power panel was jumped, so they were basically stealing power from BC Hydro, and that power was unregulated just like we thought. It could have killed us really easily. It was unfused what happened was those wires had heated up and arced out and started the basement on fire," Higgs said.
Chubey said it appears the house was being rented, and notes the crime is still under investigation.
Anyone with information is asked to contact RCMP at 604-885-2266 or Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
