(File photo / Vernon Matters)

By Pete McIntyre

Home destroyed

House fire on orchard was accidental, burn got out of control

Apr 19, 2021 | 10:06 AM

A fire that destroyed an old farmhouse near Stickle Road in Greater Vernon’s BX area Saturday afternoon was caused by an outside burn that got out of control.

Fire chief Bill Wacey says the occupant was burning some prunings and went into the house for a few minutes when it got away and caught onto some bushes and then spread to the side of the house.

“Anytime you’re burning outside, you have to be paying attention to it 100 per cent,” said Wacey.

Wacey said nothing was salvageable from the blaze.

“I had to get an excavator to come in and pull the walls down. It was an old farmhouse, and there was three feet of sawdust insulation in the attic and walls, and we were not able to access the building at all. It was too unsafe. I had an excavator come in to pull the walls apart so we could extinguish it,” Wacey told Vernon Matters.

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A Go Fund Me account has been started to help the occupant.