Comox firefighters spent much of Saturday morning battling a blaze with water trucked in from about a kilometre away.

The fire in the 98-year-old house could have been out sooner, but without a fire hydrant in the area, crews had to use smaller hoses to make the most out of the limited water, said Comox Fire Chief Gord Schreiner.

Three residents inside the house said they heard a smoke alarm about 6:30 a.m., the same time a neighbour was pounding on their door to get them out, Schreiner said.

It took 30 firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, he said.

“If we had a hydrant, we would have been quicker in putting out the fire.”

The three people in the house were renters and were put up in hotels for the night by the Red Cross, Schreiner said.

© Copyright 2013