Residents were able to escape a fire that completely engulfed and destroyed a Mill Bay home Saturday afternoon, according to fire officials.
Mill Bay Fire Chief Ron Beck says firefighters were called shortly after 3pm to a report of a structure fire on Arbutus Terrace off Inlet Drive.
“When we got to the scene, the house was fully involved. It’s completely destroyed,” Beck said in an interview.
Video footage captured north of Saanich amid the blaze and sent to CHEK News showed black smoke billowing into the sky over Mill Bay.
Beck said more than two dozen firefighters were called to help.
“We attended several rooms. We had Shawnigan Lake Mutual Aid with us and Cowichan Bay Mutual Aid,” he said. “We probably had 30 to 35 firefighters.”
Beck summed it up as a busy call that saw crews working to fully extinguish hot spots until 3 a.m. Sunday.
“It took a while,” he explained.
But things could have been a lot worse, Beck noted. This is because the fire had spread to nearby bush when firefighters arrived.
“We’re lucky we didn’t have any wind at that time of day or it could have been a different scenario,” Beck said.
“It’s funny because we normally experience a wind of 10 to 15 kilometers at least at this time of the day. If that had happened, the fire would have been deep and we would have had a wildfire situation on our hands.”
Beck said that although the residents are now displaced, the two people inside the home at the time of the fire made it out okay.
“They were both taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries,” he said. “A couple of burns and stuff.”
Four pets also resided in the house, including two dogs and two cats.
“We had one dog that got out of the house and was found on the beach. We’re still looking for the other one,” Beck added.
The Vancouver Island Find Lost & Escaped Dog (FLED) Facebook group posted about the missing dogs Saturday night, saying Todd was found but Butch is still missing.
In an update Sunday, FLED said Butch was found dead.
“We were hoping we’d never have to post this, but unfortunately, Butch didn’t come out…” the group said. “We are so sorry for this family and send all our prayers.”
The fire remains under investigation and the cause is unknown at this time.
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