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Dryer fire doused in Sidney

Cause of Monday afternoon remains under investigation
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Sidney Volunteer Fire Department as well as Sidney/North Saanich RCMP and BC Ambulance responded to a dryer fire on Orchard Avenue. (Sidney Volunteer Fire Department/Twitter)

Sidney firefighters Monday afternoon quickly extinguished a dryer fire, whose cause remains under investigation.

Chief Brett Mikkelsen of the Sidney Volunteer Fire Department said the fire affected a gas-powered dryer. “The fire was largely contained to the appliance itself,” he said. “It is definitely charred and showing the effects of the fire on the exterior as well as the interior.”

With Sidney’s Community Safety Building just one block away from the site of the fire on Orchard Avenue, crews were able to respond quickly with a fire extinguisher and turn off the gas to the appliance, said Mikkelsen. “So we managed to mitigate it without even spraying any water inside or causing any damage from a client-service perspective. All things considered, it was a good and a quick response.”

RELATED: Residents of a Central Saanich duplex ‘fortunate’ to escape Sunday morning fire

It is not clear yet what caused the fire, said Mikkelsen, adding that the appliance’s vent might have played a role.

“We are not saying that definitely, but it needs to be investigated,” he said. “The main thing is that the residents (are OK) and damage is very, very minimal.”

It is not clear yet whether the owner of the home was doing laundry at the time of the fire.

“When we go there, they had tried to extinguish it as well and then we went in. Our first crews entered on self-contained breathing apparatus,” said Mikkelsen. “It was very smoky inside.”

Crews from Central Saanich and North Saanich provided coverage as per the auto-aid agreement linking the communities.


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wolfgang.depner@peninsulanewsreview.com



Wolf Depner

About the Author: Wolf Depner

I joined the national team with Black Press Media in 2023 from the Peninsula News Review, where I had reported on Vancouver Island's Saanich Peninsula since 2019.
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