The Victoria Fire Department extinguished a fire that broke out in one unit of a supportive housing building on Monday.
Smoke was still coming out of the Queens Manor suite when crews arrived at the multi-unit residential building, which serves low-income tenants and is operated by the Victoria Cool Aid Society.
John Kirkendale, a battalion chief with the Victoria Fire Department, said an initial report of a structure fire came in around noon.
Crews had to use forceful entry tools as accessing the Queens Avenue suite was a challenge due to the occupant having a lot of miscellaneous items inside, Kirkendale said. The unit’s resident wasn’t inside when crews arrived and the battalion chief said the sprinklers went off inside the impacted suite.
Crews also helped usher the building’s other occupants outside upon arriving and Kirkendale said while ambulances attended and were standing by, nobody needed medical care.
Some of those occupants were huddled across the street, one using blankets to cover their dog, as crews responded amid the chilly and windy April conditions. Environment Canada on Monday morning warned winds could reach gusts of 90 km/h.
A transit bus was expected to take the Queens Manor residents to a shelter as Kirkendale said occupants would likely be able to return to their suites later in the day, except for the one affected by the fire.
The cause of the incident wasn’t clear as of midday Monday as the fire department was still doing its preliminary inspection.
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