The Victoria Fire Department has been called in to respond to a fire in an apartment this morning on Bay Street.
Cassie Holcomb lives on the fourth floor of the building at 55 Bay Street and tells CHEK News that the fire was on the third floor.
“I live on the fourth floor and our fire alarm rang,” Holcomb said, noting that this happened around 5 p.m. “I grabbed my glasses, keys, cell phone and computer and it was outside. And when I got up in the parking lot, people were actually calling other people to get out of the building.”
Holcomb noted that the fire alarm had previously been activated accidentally, so people had gone out on their balconies to see if they should evacuate.
She says the fire broke out on a third-floor balcony and firefighters and police arrived about five minutes after she had left the building.
“It looks like it was mostly on the balcony,” Halcomb said. “The fire department was fantastic. They were on the scene in minutes for us and they came out pretty quickly.”
Halcomb says they were allowed to return to the building between 6:30 and 7 p.m.
“It looked like there was quite a bit of damage. I could definitely smell smoke in the building,” Halcomb said. “I have a fire door just before my apartment, and my neighbor is on the other side, and he said his apartment was very smoky. Mine wasn’t bad, in fact, I’m very happy to have that door of fire and the firewall “.
Halcomb says she is very grateful to the firefighters and police who arrived, as well as to a couple who handed out newspapers she called 911 when they saw the fire.
“A couple approached me and told me they were handing out papers and saw the smoke and called the fire department,” Halcomb said. “Thank you so much to them. And thank you so much to Victoria Fire and Victoria Police for being so quick and responding so early in the morning. It was amazing. I’m so grateful to be able to have an apartment to go back to.”
Victoria police say the cause of the fire is not suspicious and there have been no injuries.
CHEK News has contacted Victoria Fire for more information.
This is a developing story. More information will be added as details become available.
(Photo submitted / Cassie Holcomb) (Photo submitted / Cassie Holcomb)
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