Firefighters from Nanaimo's four fire stations responded to a fire that filled an apartment with heavy smoke this afternoon.
Nanaimo Fire Rescue, B.C. Ambulance Service and Nanaimo RCMP were dispatched to the fire Friday, Nov. 29, at Long Lake Manor, an apartment complex on Barons Road, where an electric oven, set on self-cleaning mode, had caught fire in a fourth-storey apartment.
Kaida Evans, who lives on the building's fifth floor, said she heard what sounded like a smoke detector alarm, but couldn't immediately figure out where the sound was coming from. She went to the apartment below hers and saw smoke coming out from the top of the door and could hear the smoke alarm sounding inside. She knocked and got no answer from anyone inside.
"I called 911 and they told me to pull the fire alarm and immediately evacuate," Evans said.
Capt. Colin Fergusson, Nanaimo Fire Rescue, said firefighters entered the apartment and saw flames in an oven.
"Unfortunately they had a hard time getting the oven door open. It was locked, because it was in self-clean mode," Fergusson said.
The flames flared up when firefighters got the door open, Fergusson said, but they were able to knock it down quickly.
Fergusson said there was minimal water and smoke damage to the apartment, but the two nearby apartments could have water and smoke damage and the two people living in the apartment will be displaced until the damage can be repaired.
No injuries were reported.
Fergusson said most of the building's tenants would be allowed back in the building Friday afternoon.
