On Sunday, at around 5pm the Bowen Island Fire Department got a call from a resident on Eaglecliff Road concerned about the smell of smoke in the area. Fire chief Ian Thompson drove to the site of the call immediately, and said he could see a shed burning next to an unfinished house on the ridge above the road.
“Within fifteen minutes, the entire house was engulfed in flames,” says Thompson. “The trees in the nearby forest were starting to candle, so I called the Coastal Fire Centre. Within 20 minutes, a three-man crew from Parksville had landed in a helicopter to survey the surrounding forest. By that time, we had our hoses going up there were able to put the fire out in the tree tops and the crew determined that everything was okay in the forest.”
Thompson adds that the fire crew prioritized the grass and trees around the house, and by the time they focused their hoses on the house 20 minutes later, it had already burned to the ground.
The house belonged to Graham and Sue Ritchie, and various members of the family had been working on it for two years.
“I was working over on the other side of the island, in Queen Charlotte Heights, when I got a call from one of our sons who was driving from Whistler and saw the blaze from the highway. Initially, I was concerned about it being at one of my client’s places, but then I learned it was our own house,” says Graham, a freelance carpenter and renovator. “It’s a bit of a heartbreaker for sure, but we are fortunate that no one got hurt, and also, it was the perfect location for an interface fire and so we’re very glad that didn’t happen.”
Ritchie adds that one of his sons had been working on the house with a friend about an hour before the fire broke out, but did not go into the shed, which is where the fires is thought to have started.
“There was some speculation that the fire started because of a generator in the shed, but that generator had not been used in months,” says Ritchie. “Apparently, people do walk up there sometimes but right now we have no idea what might have caused the fire. The area will be off-limits for the next 30 days as the insurance company will be sending inspectors up there.”
The house was not yet at the lock-up stage, it had windows and doors but no drywall or siding.
“We had people scheduled to come in and install a sprinkler next week,” says Ritchie. “But without drywall, the place was basically a bunch of sticks.”
The Fire Chief says that backyard fires are still allowed, but this structure fire just proves how quickly things have dried out.
“By weekend, the fire ban will be total,” says Thompson. “We are now officially in the dry season.”
