Two people escaped uninjured from a Saturday afternoon housefire in the Whiffin Spit area of Sooke, along with a pair of dogs.
Three cats are missing.
Sooke Fire Chief Kenn Mount said the department was alerted to the blaze in a Wright Road duplex about 12:20 p.m. He said about 30 firefighters were at the scene, with Sooke crews supported by colleagues from Otter Point, Metchosin and East Sooke.
One of the dogs was pulled out by a firefighter, while the other ran out and into another firefighter’s arms.
He said the fire was knocked down within about 30 minutes, followed by efforts to deal with hot spots and other concerns.
Emergency Social Services was called in to help the victims.
The incident had an added hazard with a downed power line that led to an outage affecting about 160 customers. Mount said it is not known if the line went down as a result of the fire.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
