Skip to content

Family escapes house fire in South Arm neighbourhood

A family is fortunate to have escaped a house fire on Roselea Crescent unharmed on Monday morning.
house fire
Richmond firefighters were able to rescue this scared kitty from a house fire on Roselea Crescent on July 24, 2017.

A family is fortunate to have escaped a house fire on Roselea Crescent unharmed on Monday morning.

Richmond Fire Rescue’s deputy chief of operations Tim Wilkinson said the South Arm neighbourhood fire started in the garage and required 24 firefighters to extinguish.

“Unfortunately the fire moved through the walls and up into the ceiling space. That was quite stubborn and took a while to contain,” explained Wilkinson, who reported no injuries to residents or his crew.

When the fire started, neighbour Rikkert Vos said he heard children screaming. One child said another child was in the garage so he broke the window to investigate only to find the child standing on the back patio in shock.

When everyone was moved to safety, Vos watched the house go up in flames.

“If the wind was blowing in the other direction, my house would have been gone, too,” said Vos, who with his wife Elaine, is only weeks away from closing on the sale of their home and moving to Vancouver.

The Vos’ house escaped with what appeared to be minor damage, although Vos’ hair was left singed by the heat. He said the flames ended up towering over his house and burned the shared hedge.

The fire happened around 11 a.m., said Vos.

He suspects the fire started in the garage and accelerated thanks to all of the flammable materials in it. He said he heard about five small explosions or popping noises.

The man who was renting the destroyed home said he was too shaken to speak to the Richmond News. Vos and other neighbours said he and his family had just moved in this month.