Fire crews in Enderby were called to a house fire on Tuesday.
Prior to the fire, the north-end home had been condemned on April 10th as a suspected drug house. According to the city, it had been condemned under the safe premises bylaw “due to the presence of controlled substances and hazardous conditions observed during the apprehension by the RCMP of a wanted person.”
The occupants were then forced to vacate.
But, according to the city, as the occupants were vacating the premises, the fire department was called to a structure fire involving the condemned building.
“There’s a lot of smoke damage and some water damage,” said fire chief Cliff Vetter. “Most of the damage was in the basement.
“We had to remove part of a wall where the flames got inside, but we were able to save the building. A fire investigation is pending.”
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Enderby mayor Greg McCune added “the action to condemn the building only could have happened with strong cooperation between the city and RCMP.
“It was our finding that this building contained a number of hazardous conditions that made it unfit for habitation. At this point, we do not know the cause of the fire for certain, but this serious situation could have been much worse, and potentially tragic.”