A massive warehouse fire in Oyster River Wednesday morning required the resources of five fire departments to help contain the situation.
The emergency on Tsolum River Road was paged out shortly after 10 a.m. and was responded to by fire crews from Oyster River, Merville, Cumberland, Courtenay and Comox. Campbell River sent down crews to act as a stand-by crew in case other fire crews were needed in the area.
”When we arrived on scene, the flames were coming through the roof, shooting 20 to 30 feet in the air so it quickly became a defensive fire” Oyster River Fire Rescue Chief Bruce Green says.
The fire was in a warehouse measuring 12 metres wide by 37 metres long, according to Green.
“The fire was going so bad we couldn’t go inside, so it was just put water on the outside and protect what we could save,” he adds.
Those nearby saveable items included a trailer at one end of the building, along with an office.
One source told media that the owner of the warehouse is a solar panel engineer and that there were vehicles stored in the building. Green wasn’t sure what was inside the structure at the time of the fire, but acknowledged solar panels and batteries were a major concern.
“Lithium batteries, you can’t put them out, just copious amounts of water so unfortunately, this situation we had to just let them burn because our exposures are our priority right now,” Green says.
Green says water was an issue given the property’s rural location.
“We have very little water supply out here, so especially with a commercial structure this big, water is a valuable resource so right now we have four tenders shuttling water back and forth,” Green says.
Crews were able to prevent the fire from spreading to nearby trees and the Coastal Fire Service was notified of the situation, but wasn’t required to respond.
