Rutland fire forces 6 into the street

The Kelowna Fire Department was called out to a house fire in Rutland Friday afternoon.

The blaze forced the occupants of a residence at 145 Briarwood Road  into the street as flames engulfed the entrance into one of the two apartments in the home.

Photo: Grant Scott

Fire crews mop up after putting out a fire in Rutland Friday afternoon.

"The fire seems to be contained to one side of the two storey structure," says Platoon Captain Dennis Miller.

"It has a suite upstairs and a suite downstairs. Everybody got out just fine. The RCMP was here and helped with the evacuation and they'll be looked after by ESS."

In all, six people were evacuated and are not expected to be able to get back in for at least a day, although it may be longer.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation and Miller says the crews who initially responded did not immediately notice anything inside.

"We found nothing inside so far, but our fire investigator is on the scene and he'll be investigating it."

In all 15 firefighters responded in three engines and quickly put the fire out.

"It was a fairly quick knock down by the crew from the Rutland fire station. They're just down the road so the response was really quick," says Miller.