Parksville Fire Department crews were called out Sunday to deal with a fire at the Coast Parksville Hotel.
According to Fire Chief Marc Norris, an electrical short caused a fire to spark in the eaves of the third floor in the northwest corner of the building, facing towards Moilliet Street. He said the fire was approximately two or three square feet and started close to 5:50 p.m. The flames were noticed by someone passing outside the building who notified the desk of the hotel. The fire alarm was then activated and the building was evacuated.
“No civilians, that we’re aware of, and no firefighters were hurt during the incident,” said Norris.
The fire department’s investigation found that the blaze had started in the soffit of the third floor and moved up into the roof trusses. Norris suspects the cause to be older electrical wiring in the eaves, possbily left from a previous exterior sign. He said the fire was not deemed suspicious.
READ MORE: COVID-19: Parksville Fire Department creating special memories
He said that damage had been kept to the ‘roof area’ and no significant damage had entered the building, save for some attic space and inside the soffit in the northwest corner of the building. He imagines the hotel will need to some repairs but they were able to catch it before it extended further into the roof.
“Another five or 10 minutes and it would’ve been the entire roof,” said Norris.
Norris said the rainy weather over the weekend would not have made a difference because the top of the roof is meant to shed water “which makes it very difficult to get water in at a fire” that’s inside an attic space.
“We had an active fire in one area and we actually had a second electrical short on the same circut in another area of the soffit, but that didn’t cause a fire in that particular spot,” he said.