Stove Fire Damages French Road Home

Crews were dispatched to an afternoon fire today to a home on French Road. Arriving on scene, firefighters found a two storey home with light smoke coming from upper windows. The badly shaken homeowner was located in the back yard. While it appeared the fire was out, crews entered the house to determine what was occurring. A stove top fire had spread up the wall and into the adjacent cupboard. It appeared the homeowner had extinguished most of the fire with cups of water, however hotspots were still found in several areas. These were quickly extinguished. Significant smoke damage was observed throughout the top floor of the home and crews set up two fans to clear the air. Upon inspection of the attic, heavy smoke was found throughout this area. Upon further investigation it was determined that the fire had moved up through the vent pipe of the kitchen hood fan to the attic. At the point where the metal duct hit the attic space, two plastic dryer vent type hoses were attached and then up to the roof vent. Most of the ducting had burnt or melted and charing was found up the stud spaces and into the attic. This area was checked with a thermal image camera and several pieces of melted insulation were also removed. It was evident that the fire was only one or two minutes away from causing significant damage to the second floor and roof of the building. The smoke detector was also missing from its location. The homeowner was transported to VGH by ambulance. From the state of the fire, it appears she was very lucky to escape.