A small fire in a home in north Nanaimo this week spewed more smoke than flame, along with a public service advisory from Nanaimo Fire Rescue.
The fire broke out Monday, April 25, just before 5 p.m. in the the 6600 block of Valley View Drive. According to Nanaimo Fire Rescue, firefighters, paramedics and police were summoned to the scene, as per normal protocol, because of ammunition and gunpowder stored in the home’s garage.
Troy Libbus, Nanaimo Fire Rescue assistant chief of training and education, said the fire was confined to the garage and resulted mostly in smoke damage.
“The cause of the fire was emptying ashes into a tin garbage can,” Libbus said.
He said the homeowner had doused the flames with a fire extinguisher before firefighters arrived. Damage was limited to some items near the container and there was smoke damage and staining to the walls and ceiling of the garage.
“The safety message here is when emptying your fireplace, you put [the ashes] in a tin container and you put it outside, away from any combustibles and you put water in the container to make sure the embers don’t continue to heat up and cause a fire,” Libbus said.
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