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Alert neighbours spot blaze in $1.2-million home

Victoria fire investigators are working to determine what sparked a fire that damaged a Fairfield Road home on Thursday morning. Bryan Higgins, who lives next door to the home at 1421 Fairfield Rd., called 911just before 8 a.m.

Victoria fire investigators are working to determine what sparked a fire that damaged a Fairfield Road home on Thursday morning.

Bryan Higgins, who lives next door to the home at 1421 Fairfield Rd., called 911just before 8 a.m. after he saw flames shooting from the back of the house.

Higgins and another neighbour ran to the house and kicked down the front door to make sure no one was inside. The top part of the three-bedroom home was vacant, as the house is for sale. Higgins said it was smoky inside, but he didn’t see any flames.

Two tenants live in the basement suite, so Higgins and the neighbour ran around back and knocked on the glass door.

“No one answered, so I took a chair and smashed the door and found no one inside,” Higgins said.

Victoria firefighters arrived within five minutes and started tackling the flames, which had spread up an exterior wall and into the attic. Firefighters cut through the roof to find possible hot spots.

“The fire started on the rear of the building, near a rear sundeck or porch area, [and] spread up the wall and into the attic space,” said battalion chief Dave Bicknell.

The metre-high uncut grass and overgrown shrubs surrounding the home were a cause for concern, he said, but firefighters were able to prevent the fire from spreading.

Two fire inspectors were on scene trying to determine what caused the blaze.

Damage to the home, which sold last year for $1.2 million, is estimated at more than $100,000.

kderosa@timescolonist.com

ceharnett@timescolonist.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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