A chimney fire at the 17 Mile House challenged firefighters on several front. Due to the location of the chimney on the building, the safest access was over the aerial ladder, however the only place this could be set up was on Sooke Road. This required a call to the RCMP to establish traffic control. On arrival, the occupants reported that the building was filling with smoke, that the walls were starting to get hot and that they had already tried using a dry chemical extinguisher to no avail. With this report and only a small number of Sooke Firefighters available, a call was placed to Metchosin FD to supply and engine for mutual aid. The fire was difficult to extinguish due to blockages in the chimney from creosote. These had to be broken apart to enable the fire to be fully extinguished. On checking the attic for possible fire extension, crews were very surprised to see some fairly extensive burning on the rafters and timbers in this area. While not a result of this fire, at some point in time a fairly good attic fire had occured in this building. After about 90 minutes, crews had successfully stopped the fire, confirmed it had not spread and were able to clear the scene.
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