Nanaimo Fire Rescue had a busy few days as firefighters responded to a series of blazes in the city.
At 6:05 on Thursday, crews attended a fire on Milford Crescent which they quickly extinguished. Capt. Ennis Mond, fire prevention officer, said that fire, which appeared to have started in a planter, did minor damage to the exterior of a home.
While still on scene at Milford Crescent, fire crews were dispatched to an attic fire in a home at 106 Pine St.
The cause of the blaze, which damaged the top floor of the 100-year-old home, is still under investigation. Mond said three people living in the house escaped unharmed and are insured, but the fire was difficult to put out and the house is uninhabitable until repairs are made.
Fire broke out in a decommissioned chip silo at Harmac, shortly before 9:30 p.m. Thursday night.
“It appears that earlier in the day they had a fire in a hog pile and wind probably picked up embers and tossed them up onto the roof of this old building,” Mond said.
A fire suppression sprinkler system in the silo helped knock down the fire, but it still took several hours for a crew with an aerial ladder truck to fully extinguish the blaze.
Shortly after 6 a.m. Friday another call came in for fire that started in a rubbish pile and extended to the exterior of a home on the 3900 block of MacIsaac Drive. Fire damage was limited to the home’s exterior.
One man was displaced from his home at 910 Crace St. after a fire broke out Sunday shortly after 3 p.m.
The fire appears to have originated near a rear-entry door to the home’s basement and spread into an exterior wall. The blaze set gas cans and a lawnmower alight and worked its way up to the main floor where it caused extensive damage to the kitchen before burning into the attic.
Mond said the resident was away at work when the fire occurred and was not injured, but had no insurance.
The resident works on bicycles as a hobby and it appears the fire might have been started by sparks from grinding metal earlier in the day, Mond said.
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