After fire ravaged a national historic house in Vic West on Tuesday night, the question on the minds of heritage advocates is whether it can be saved.
Fire investigators searched Wednesday for the origin and cause of the blaze at 223 Robert St.
The house, built in 1903-1904 with a corner tower and a widow’s walk, has been meticulously restored over the past 43 years by its owner, Jim Lee. It was designated a municipal heritage site and a national heritage site.
Lee, who escaped the blaze without injury, is devastated and in shock, said his good friend Pamela Madoff, a heritage advocate and former Victoria city councillor. Lee had been reading in bed when he heard a pop and his smoke alarm went off.
Neighbour Tom Bown, a research associate at the Royal British Columbia Museum, called Lee an “amazing pillar” of the neighbourhood. “We’re just so lucky he got out,” Bown said. “But we’re just all heartbroken. This house has tremendous heritage value. I’m just hoping they save it.”
Lee is also an antique collector and the house was filled with fine furnishing, said Bown.
“If you went to have dinner in his house, it was like having dinner in the 1880s. It was beautiful,” he said.
Murray Campbell stood beside Bown, watching the fire crews mop up Wednesday morning. The former deputy fire chief said Lee called him about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and told him his house was on fire.
“I quickly rushed over and Jim was on the front porch. He said the fire was in the back corner. So my foster son and I ran around the back and got the garden hose going, but it was too late by then,” Campbell said. “As soon as I got around the back, I saw smoke and flames coming out the back door. It was up into the ceiling. Every indication was that it happened in the back corner, which is the old kitchen area.”
Lee was very distraught, Campbell said.
“I just made sure he was safe and went to try and tackle the fire,” he said. “The fire trucks arrived and we helped the firemen lay out some of the hoses. We just kept cool heads and helped out where we could.”
The Victoria Fire Department received a 911 call at 8:41 p.m. Tuesday and sent 22 firefighters, three fire trucks, two aerial trucks, a rescue company and a battalion, said deputy fire chief Dan Atkinson.
When firefighters arrived, they were met with heavy fire at the back of the building. They started tackling the fire from the outside, then entered the building, but there were a lot of contents that impeded their progress and they were forced to back out, Atkinson said.
Firefighters tried to enter the building again, but were forced out a second time by challenging conditions.
“At that point in time, the decision was made to move into a defensive posture to try to suppress the fire from the exterior, which was successful,” Atkinson said.
Fighting the fire was challenging for a number of reasons, he said. Construction of turn-of -the-century homes is different from homes built today. Architectural features inside a home of that era are made of old wood.
“And a lot of personal belongings and property added to the fire load and spread, which made our job a little bit more difficult,” Atkinson said. “The firefighters who responded had several hours of very difficult conditions and they met it head on.”
There’s no reason to believe the fire is suspicious, the department said. Fire investigators were at the scene Tuesday and Wednesday, gathering evidence.
“The cause is still under investigation, but anytime you have a fire of this scope, the physical damage can make it challenging to lock it down to a single point of origin,” Atkinson said.
The community has come together to support Lee, he said.
An insurance adjuster will assess the damage and help to decide whether the house can be saved.
Madoff, who has been friends with Lee since 1984, is saddened by the potential loss of the heritage house.
“Once I stopped crying, and once I began to try to believe this has happened … because in spite of all the video I’ve seen and the photo and talking to Jim, I just can’t believe it,” she said.
Lee has been key in a recent initiative to have the city declare the neighbourhood a heritage conservation area.
“Jim brought all of his neighbours together. It was one of the most collaborative processes I’d ever been involved with. To have this happen is just gutting,” said Madoff.
She said when she talked to Lee Wednesday morning, he didn’t know if the house could be saved.
Lee was waiting for his insurance company, but the pandemic is complicating that, said Madoff.
“But knowing Jim as I do, I know his desire would be to restore the house after all he’s put into it. With Jim, his commitment is not only to his own home. He’s been so deeply committed to heritage preservation in the city for all those decades. It’s not just a personal involvement; it’s something he just lives and breathes.”
When she heard about the fire, Madoff thought of the fire a few years ago in another heritage home at the corner of Balmoral and Fernwood.
“Now it’s almost totally restored. So there is absolutely hope,” she said. “Those houses are similar in terms of age and architecture and they both have towers. And no one would have more will than Jim if he could make it happen.”
