Three people were displaced by a weekend fire that damaged two homes and left one woman with minor burns.
According to Capt. Ennis Mond, Nanaimo Fire Rescue’s chief fire prevention officer, the fire at 2114 Bowen Rd. was discovered shortly before midnight Friday by a woman while she was hanging up wet clothes to dry.
“There was one of those pop-up shelters on the patio and she was hanging up some damp clothes in the pop-up shelter to dry overnight when she noticed the fire at her feet,” Mond said.
Gasoline stored in five-gallon containers near a fence on the edge of the concrete patio where the fire appears to have started, ignited, setting the shelter and fence on fire.
“The fire extended from the pop-up shelter area to the house on that property and then the stored fuel ignited and the heat from that did damage to the house next door,” Mond said.
The home next door suffered damage to its wooden deck, deck railing and vinyl siding.
The woman ran into the house to alert her partner and mother. All three escaped the blaze with their pet cats, but the woman suffered minor burns to her lower legs.
Six tenants in the house at 2116 Bowen Rd. escaped unhurt and have not been displaced by the fire.
The owner of home that burned is insured, but the tenants were not, Mond said, and the owner of the house next door did not have insurance. Mond said as of Monday morning, the cause of the fire was still undetermined.