An early morning fire on July 11 destroyed a home in Sechelt.
The fire, which was reported to the Sechelt fire department just after 1 a.m. on Monday, occurred in the 5400 block of Highway 101 near Monkey Tree Lane.
No one was at home at the time of the blaze, which was called in by a neighbour who saw the flames from her bedroom window.
"The flames were through the roof of the house when we arrived on scene," said fire Chief Bill Higgs. "It took us eight minutes to get on scene and by the time we arrived, there was no chance of us saving anything in the house of origin."
Higgs said firefighters had to work quickly to prevent the flames from moving to two adjacent properties.
"The fire had started to spread to a second property and a fence and the siding of the home on a third property was also singed from the heat," said Higgs. "We had our hands full and it could have been even worse."
Higgs said, had the fire occurred earlier in the evening, the damage might have been significantly less.
"The house of origin is destroyed - there is nothing left," he said, adding the cause of the fire has still not been determined. "With the fire starting late at night, everyone is asleep and the traffic on the road is pretty minimal. Had this occurred earlier in the evening, we probably would have been notified much quicker, and who knows, we might have been able to save some of the property."
Fire crews were back at it less than 24 hours later when they were called out just before 1 a.m. Tuesday morning for a fire at the Sechelt landfill.
Higgs said this fire originated in a dumpster of material at the landfill that had not been sorted yet.
When fire crews arrived on scene, the fire had started to spread to a nearby excavator, but crews were able to extinguish the blaze before any major damage occurred.
Higgs said the fire likely started with some flammable items in the dumpster.
"We get two or three of these fires a year up there. You never know what people throw away," he said.
