A second-floor fire in a house on the 5000 block of Heron Place in Sechelt sent two residents to be treated for smoke inhalation early Sunday morning, but the house was saved after a quick response from the Sechelt fire department.
Fire chief Bill Higgs said the 9-1-1 call came in around 6 a.m. and firefighters were on scene in about four and a half minutes.
"We were on scene really quick and did the initial knockdown with our mini-pumper and after that we did what's called an aggressive interior attack. So we sent a crew inside the building and knocked down the rest of the flames from the inside of the building as opposed to the outside," he said.
Higgs said the fire did about $150,000 of damage to the second floor, but the owners' valuables including photos and personal records were not damaged.
Higgs said proper planning on the part of the residents meant the fire simply did damage as opposed to destroying the home and leaving the residents seriously injured or even killed.
"The reason these people woke up and were able to exit the building was that they had a working smoke alarm," he said. "They couldn't get out the regular way. The fire was too intense in the hallway, so they had a secondary plan, which they are supposed to have, to get out the bedroom window and that's what they did."
Higgs said inspectors should have the cause of the fire figured out by Tuesday. Foul play is not suspected.
