Oliver homeowner tries to fight fire, house destroyed by blaze

Photo: Oliver Fire Department

A heavy structure fire destroyed a home in Oliver on Monday, despite the homeowner and the fire departments' best efforts to try to save it.

Before crews arrived, one of the homeowners went down into the basement where the fire started to see if he could do anything to stop the fire, ending up with minor burns to the back of his head and hands, according to fire chief Bob Graham.

He was sent to the hospital afterwards to treat the burns. The other resident got out safely without any injuries.

The Oliver Fire Department was called out at approximately 10:30 a.m. to a fully involved structure fire.

“Because of the style of house and the contents of the house, we were unable to make access inside the house, which required us to go to more of a defensive attack,” Graham said.

Eventually, the teams had to call in an excavator to take the house apart so the fire crews could attack the flames.

Twenty-five firefighters worked on extinguishing the blaze until later into the afternoon.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, although the belief is it started in the furnace.