Rutland Road in Kelowna was shut down for several hours on Saturday as fire crews battled a structure fire at the corner of McCurdy Road and Rutland Road.
Fire crews got the call just after 12:30 p.m.
“When I came out on my back deck, I looked over and it was just black smoke rolling up into the air,” said Don Mills, who lives nearby. “I thought that looked pretty close so I went to have a look at it.”
“We had smoke showing through the roof, heavy smoke,” said Platoon Captain Dale Calhoun with the Kelowna Fire Department. “We have a three engine response that came out here.”
Upon entry into the house, Calhoun says firefighters discovered something unusual.
“Our attack team went into the house and we discovered that there is a grow-op at this place here,” he said.
Calhoun says the marijuana grow-op was discovered in the basement, forcing firefighters to pull back.
“There is quite a little bit of suspicion of what is going on there so we pulled the guys out right away. We went defensive with it. We have had Fortis here to cut the power off. Power has been taken from somewhere else so we can’t go in there until we confirm that part of it,” he said.
Firefighters attacked the blaze from the outside and removed flammable objects, like a nearby propane tank, away from the flames.
“We cannot get inside at all so it is going to take a little while,” Calhoun said.
It is unclear whether anyone was inside the structure at the time of the fire.
“We do have information from other neighbours that somebody was living there,” said Constable Ryan Grottolo with the Kelowna RCMP. “I have information of one may be two people regularly there.”
“We had reports there is one person that was inside. They are not accounted for but we are not 100% sure at this moment,” Calhoun said.
There is still no word on how the fire started.
Fire crews got the call just after 12:30 p.m.
“When I came out on my back deck, I looked over and it was just black smoke rolling up into the air,” said Don Mills, who lives nearby. “I thought that looked pretty close so I went to have a look at it.”
“We had smoke showing through the roof, heavy smoke,” said Platoon Captain Dale Calhoun with the Kelowna Fire Department. “We have a three engine response that came out here.”
Upon entry into the house, Calhoun says firefighters discovered something unusual.
“Our attack team went into the house and we discovered that there is a grow-op at this place here,” he said.
Calhoun says the marijuana grow-op was discovered in the basement, forcing firefighters to pull back.
“There is quite a little bit of suspicion of what is going on there so we pulled the guys out right away. We went defensive with it. We have had Fortis here to cut the power off. Power has been taken from somewhere else so we can’t go in there until we confirm that part of it,” he said.
Firefighters attacked the blaze from the outside and removed flammable objects, like a nearby propane tank, away from the flames.
“We cannot get inside at all so it is going to take a little while,” Calhoun said.
It is unclear whether anyone was inside the structure at the time of the fire.
“We do have information from other neighbours that somebody was living there,” said Constable Ryan Grottolo with the Kelowna RCMP. “I have information of one may be two people regularly there.”
“We had reports there is one person that was inside. They are not accounted for but we are not 100% sure at this moment,” Calhoun said.
There is still no word on how the fire started.
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