Weed removal leads to house destruction

Weed removal leads to house destruction
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published June 4 ,2003



Burnaby firefighters were kept hopping on Saturday afternoon when two homes on opposite sides of the city were hit by devastating fires just one minute apart from each other.

The first call at 3:47 p.m. was to a home in the 800 block of Alpha Avenue where a fire that started in a parked vehicle spread to the inside of the home.

While fire damage was limited to the garage and laundry room, much of the interior of the house suffered smoke and heat damage. Investigators are still trying to determine why the vehicle caught fire.

The second, more serious, fire occurred in the 7000 block of 19th Avenue, near Griffiths, when a homeowner was trying to remove weeds from his yard using a 'tiger tail' blowtorch.

Flames from the propane-powered torch spread up the side of the backyard shed onto the carport and then quickly engulfed the two- storey, wood-frame home.

The damage was extensive, and the fire chief's report indicates the home may have to be totally demolished.

Firefighters were hampered in their ability to fight the blaze when cans of flammable materials, likely gasoline and paint thinners that were stored in the work shed, started to explode. Luckily, nobody was injured during the incident.