A Westbank home has been significantly damaged after a fire broke out Wednesday afternoon.
West Kelowna Fire Rescue was called to the home in the 2100 block of Madera Court shortly after 5:00pm.
Chester Sobchuck, who lives a few houses down from the home, was one of the first to spot smoke. He told neighbors to call 911 while he tried to alert potential occupants.
“Knocked on the downstairs unit, try to get the people there, if they were anybody home. Nobody was there, so I ran over to the house next door to them, got the lady and her kids out. Some others just ran and got these people out next door,” he said “By the time I came out flames were just shooting through the garage and the front entrance way.”
A total of 27 firefighters responded to the fire, working in plus 33 degree temperatures.
West Kelowna Fire Rescue says three separate hoses were needed to tackle the flames, which spread from the garage into the attic space and main floor living area. A truck parked in the driveway received some damage and a neighboring house sustained some minor heat damage.
4 adults and 1 child have been displaced by the fire but no one was injured.
The cause of the fire is under investigation but Sobchuk believes it may have started in the garage as the occupants were in the process of staining a deck.
“We sorta figure she must have left the rags in the garage and those things become self-combustible,” he said “we assume that that’s what happened cause it was in the garage where the full fire started.”
Fire investigators were on scene when the fire was out to conduct a preliminary fire cause and origin investigation. They will return to the scene Thursday morning to investigate further.