Chilliwack BC – Sunday Morning ( 8:15am on May 24th), firefighters from Chilliwack fire halls 1 and 4 responded to a structure fire in the 46000 block of 4th Avenue. When firefighters arrived they found a vacant, boarded up single storey residential house with light smoke showing from the roof system. Crews gain access to the rear of the home through the back door that had been previously breached and saw flames in the corner of the interior dining room.
Upon further investigation, the first in fire crew noticed that the pipe that supplies the natural gas to the furnace was removed and it appears that the pilot light from the hot water tank may have ignited the gas which started the fire.
Firefighters confined and quickly extinguished the fire by turning off the main gas valve at the meter located outside the home.
No one was hurt.
This fire was deliberately set and is under investigation by Chilliwack Fire Department and RCMP fire investigators.
If anyone has any information about this fire, they are asked to call the RCMP at 604-792-4611 or anonymously through Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or www.chilliwackcrimestoppers.ca
