A roof fire in Bonniebrook Heights last Thursday, Jan. 8 is likely the result of pyrolysis, a thermochemical decomposition of organic materials at high temperatures.
“After many years the wood dries out and becomes just like tinder,” said Gibsons fire chief Bob Stevens.
Stevens said investigation into the actual cause is still ongoing, but it does not appear to be a chimney fire, as in not a result of build up form combustible substances inside the chimney, like creosote.Firefighters are confident that it started where the chimney actually broke through the roof of the house, at the transition point.
“There was no visible, external signs,” said Stevens. “People didn’t know there was a problem until they saw some of the softwood material actually falling away from the roof. By then it was well up into the structure and starting to travel across the roof.”
The fire didn’t do any serious structural damage to the house, but accessing it inside the ceiling lead to extensive damage.
“A very labour intensive kind of incident,” said Stevens. “Not a whole lot of fire damage but by the time we had the water and everything else [there was] extensive loss to the house.”
According to Stevens, the only way to really avoid something like this is to make sure your chimney is up to code.
