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Campbell River man escapes weekend kitchen fire uninjured

Increase in kitchen fires prompts fire chief reminder to not leave cooking unattended
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Campbell River firefighters responded a house fire Sunday morning. The lone occupant escaped unharmed and the fire was contained to the upstairs kitchen. Photo by Campbell River Fire/Twitter

The lone occupant at a residential fire in Campbell River over the weekend is lucky to have escaped unharmed, said Campbell River Fire Chief Thomas Doherty. The Carnegie Street home did not have working smoke detectors.

“It’s critical that everybody check to make sure their smoke alarms are operating properly,” said Doherty. “It’s your best chance of escaping a fire.”

In this case, he suspects the batteries in the units were either dead or removed. Doherty recommends doing a monthly check on smoke detectors by pressing the test button and seeing if they activate. If the units are battery-operated, he suggests changing the batteries when you adjust your clocks for daylight savings times.

A call was received shortly after 9 a.m. on Sunday. Upon arrival, Doherty said he could see smoke coming from the east side of the home. The lone occupant was waiting across the street. He had escaped from the basement suite. When firefighters entered the home, they found “heavy smoke” coming from upstairs.

“We were able to quickly get into the kitchen area where we discovered the fire and knocked it down, containing it to the kitchen,” said Doherty.

Investigators are on scene today to try and determine the cause of the fire.

With a rise in kitchen fires this year, Doherty is reminding people to not leave cooking unattended in addition to checking their smoke detectors.

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@marissatiel
marissa.tiel@campbellrivermirror.com

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