Three Anmore homes destroyed in weekend blaze

A fast-moving fire destroyed three homes in Anmore’s Countryside Village late Saturday night, causing one woman to be taken to hospital and displacing three families.

Had the blaze occurred in drier conditions, the damage to the compact neighbourhood could have been much worse, according to Sasamat Volunteer Fire Department (SVFD) chief Jay Sharpe.

“There are 20 other homes in close proximity to the fire,” Sharpe said. “If it was in the middle of the summertime and it was dry, it would have been frightening.”

The fire broke out shortly before midnight on May 10. Sasamat Volunteer Fire Department crews arrived to find one older mobile home fully engulfed in flames – with a nearby vehicle also ablaze – and the fire rapidly spreading to two neighbouring homes.

Sharpe said at the fire’s peak, there were 22 volunteer firefighters on scene, it took two and a half hours to get it under control, and over six hours to fully extinguish the flames.

The fire completely destroyed the mobile home, reducing it to a “pile of twisted steel,” Sharpe said. A woman living there was forced to jump from a window to escape the flames. She was taken to hospital early Sunday morning and released later that day.

Two adjacent homes, one of which was only six months old, suffered such severe damage that Sharpe said both will likely have to be torn down and rebuilt.

While the official cause remains unknown, Sharpe said early reports of an explosion were likely related to stored car tires that blew from the heat. A formal fire investigation began Monday morning. 

The Coquitlam RCMP initially secured the scene and the SVFD are expecting to transfer control to a restoration company after the investigation is complete.

Sharpe said the fire’s intensity was largely due to the construction of the original mobile home, likely built in the mid-1970s.

“They were built with very small dimensional lumber, so like two-by-twos for the exterior walls,” he said. “They’re really highly combustible, and when they catch on fire, they burn really hot and really fast.”

Sharpe credited the rapid response of his volunteer crew with preventing even greater damage.

Within 10 minutes, the department had two pumpers and a ladder truck on scene, and began attempting to contain the spread in the densely packed neighbourhood.

“We very quickly realized that our new priority was protecting all of the other structures around,” Sharpe said. “Looking at the eve of one house and the eve of the other house, and there was probably less than four feet between them.”

Countryside Village, once a trailer park in the 1970s, has transitioned over the years into a manufactured home community, and Sharpe noted many older mobile homes have been replaced with newer structures.

He said a tree behind the mobile home suffered significant heat damage, but never caught fire, and airborne embers landing on other homes also did not catch fire. 

“Again, because it wasn’t bone dry, there was no further fire spread,” Sharpe said. 

The department also received 12 air bottles from Port Moody Fire Rescue after exhausting its own supply, but no mutual aid was requested.

Sharpe praised his crew’s performance during the emergency.

“They spend hundreds of hours training each year for zero compensation. To see them all perform as admirably as they did that night under very challenging conditions makes me very proud as the fire chief.”

On Sunday, the Anmore Neighbours Community Association organized a GoFundMe page to raise money for the displaced families. As of Monday, $9,000 has been raised.