An early morning fire on Oct. 2 destroyed a home in the 8600 block of Merry Island Esplanade, near Welcome Beach in Halfmoon Bay.
The Halfmoon Bay volunteer fire department was dispatched to the blaze at 4:19 a.m. on Sunday. It took assistance from the Sechelt volunteer fire department, the help of a nearby excavator and many hours to completely extinguish the fire.
Halfmoon Bay fire Chief Greg Phelps said a small firefighting crew and a metal roof on the home contributed to the difficulty.
"We only had eight guys on scene so we were short handed and we called for mutual aid from Sechelt," Phelps said. "It was very difficult to get to because of that metal roof. We had to have a machine rip some of the roofing off.
"There was a smaller excavator on scene because they were doing some renos. Fortunately the guy only lived a few houses away, so we got a hold of him and were able to rip some of the roofing off because it was a double roof on it and we just couldn't get into it."
The Sechelt fire department assisted and together the firefighters worked to make sure all hot spots were extinguished. They left the scene shortly after 11 a.m.
Phelps suspects the cause of the fire was water leaking into an electrical box in the home.
"Just from talking to the owner, he said he did have a water leak upstairs and he went down and turned the water off under the crawl space and when he came back shortly thereafter, the fuse panel started popping and banging and shooting fire, so we figure excessive water got in the panel and shorted it out," Phelps said.
He said the fire department has not yet completed its investigation, and the homeowners' insurance company was also on site this week doing their own investigation into the cause of the blaze.
While the family did not wish to speak to Coast Reporter this week, Phelps noted they have a place to stay while they are displaced from their home that likely cannot be repaired.
"I think it's a write-off. The top floor is completely gone. The floor is caved all into the bottom floor. There's a lot of water damage and fallen debris on the bottom floor. That metal roof burnt the rafters so bad. The heat was phenomenal; it just drove it right through the floor and collapsed so I would say it's a write-off," Phelps said.
Sunshine Coast RCMP, paramedics and BC Hydro also responded to the fire.
The RCMP said no injuries were reported.
