A rural home in the Twin Lakes area of B.C., went up in flames Thursday morning, and plumes of smoke were visible from neighbouring communities.
Twin Lakes is outside of the service area of the Kaleden Volunteer Fire Department and is not serviced by any fire department.
According to Twin Lakes area director Subrina Monteith, the home was located in the 800 block of Grand Oro Road.
“I woke up this morning to several Facebook messages and emails and text messages about a home on fire in the Twin Lake area. I followed up with some local neighbours that I know, and they confirmed that there was a home on fire,” said Monteith.
“It is devastating to lose a home so, very sad for that family.”
The home was left to burn to the ground as the area does not have any level of fire protection.
BC Wildfire Service confirmed in an email that one of their officers did attend the fire, however, because it was a structural fire, the officer went out to observe and make sure it didn’t spread into the forest.
“Upon their arrival, it was noted that the structure was fully involved and that the fire had not spread into the trees, and that there was no risk of fire spread beyond the burning structure,” BC Wildfire Service Information Officer Taylor Shantz in a statement.
“A BC Wildfire member returned to the incident this afternoon and confirmed that there was no risk of spread and no further need to monitor the incident.”
“When there is a fire, BC Wildfire does show up and does do what they’re obligated to do which is protect the forest surrounding the homes,” said Monteith. “But they won’t protect the structures themselves.”
Monteith went on to say that it has been an ongoing conversation as to whether or not Twin Lakes should have fire protection.
That could mean either a volunteer fire department, a satellite of the Kaleden Volunteer Fire Department or a fire brigade within the rural community.
“In order for Twin Lakes to have its own fire service, they’d have to have their own fire hall, their own volunteers, but they can work collaboratively with Kaleden,” said Monteith.
“When they may not be able to get all the volunteers in Twin Lakes, they’d be able to pull in some volunteers from Kaleden so they can work together as a team. Right now, that doesn’t exist, unfortunately.”
The area is quite spread out and Thursday’s house fire was in a particularly challenging area to access down an unpaved road.
The extra challenge, according to officials, is that there are no fire hydrants in Twin Lakes.
“The goal of having a tax-funded fire service would be that the cost of the service of the fire department would be reduced (through) savings of your property insurance because you wouldn’t pay as much for property insurance,” said Monteith.
“They wouldn’t get the same savings on their home insurance that Kaleden does because (Kaleden has) fire hydrants.”
“With the Keremeos Creek fire, that was a large scare, especially for the people on the other side of the highway on Sheep Creek Road, the fire came really close to their homes,” said Monteith. “So having a fire service out there would definitely be beneficial.”
“I’m just thankful that there’s nobody harmed and everybody is safe,” said Monteith.
The home is a complete loss, but according to neighbours, the family and their animals were able to make it out safely.
Global News spoke to the homeowner who did not want to comment but said they are lucky to have good neighbours and family.
Comments