A seasonal residence burnt to the ground at Dorman Point Tuesday night, and more than 20 Bowen volunteer firefighters fought throughout the night to successfully extinguish the blaze, fire chief Brian Biddlecombe said. No one was in the home.
An adjacent caretaker's home was saved by firefighters and a man staying there, a long-time islander Louis Racine, sustained minor burns and did not require hospitalization.
"I did my best to try and save the place. I went for one last try and that's when I got really singed," Racine says. "After that, I knew there was nothing I could do, she was gonna go."
His dogs are okay but three cats are missing.
The cause of the fire does not appear related to a stump and wood debris burn-off taking place in the area.
The fire chief said the cause was "undetermined."
Biddlecombe said they got the call at 8:15 p.m. The fire, on an approx. two acres of land-locked property, is accessible by a walking trail but only in the day; in the evening it is marine-access only. The fire department boated pumps out to the site from the dock at Snug Cove. The fire chief said that when they arrived "the house was fully involved."
Determining they could not save the structure, they got a pump up to the dock and ran hoses up steep stairs and set to work, their efforts successfully going toward saving the surrounding forested areas and preventing the fire from engaging any other structures in the area.
"It was very difficult, treacherous terrain with steep drop-offs and no lighting, we had to bring in our own lighting," Biddlecombe told the Undercurrent Wednesday. "If the fire had happened a couple of months earlier we would have been severely challenged in stopping it from spreading."
The fire was so large that Islanders returning home on the 8:30 p.m. ferry could see flames as the Queen of Capilano pulled out of Horseshoe Bay. The nearer they got, ferry passengers said, the more detailed the massive fire area became.
Biddlecombe said he could not "...say enough about the dedication of our volunteer firefighters" in battling the difficult fire. He said some 22 firefighters worked on scene until 6 a.m. At 2 in the afternoon that day a dozen were still at the firehall, cleaning hoses and storing equipment.
