Surrey home badly damaged in overnight house fire

One person suffered second-degree burns and a home was badly damaged in a fire in Surrey on Thursday night.

Firefighters were called to the house near 88th Avenue and 159th Street around 11:30 p.m., where they arrived to find flames shooting out of the building.

Battalion Chief Spiro Pegios said crews were initially concerned someone may have been trapped inside.

“The fire was fully involved; it was coming out of every door and every window,” he said.

“At that time, we didn’t know for sure how many occupants — we still had reports there was possibly occupants in there — so the crews knocked it down and tried to expedite that in order to make an interior attack and do a search.”

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Fortunately, no one was in the home, however a man was found outside the building with second-degree burns.

The home is currently listed for sale, and seven people told Global News they lived in the house.

Fire crews remained at the scene into the morning putting out hotspots, and traffic was closed in the area for about four hours overnight.

RCMP remained on the scene on Friday morning, and a fire investigator was deployed to begin looking into what may have sparked the flames.

The City of Surrey told Global News their bylaw department has a history of complaints at the home, including noise, animals at large and concerns over property use.

—With files from Neetu Garcha