A raging fire early Sunday morning destroyed two houses under construction in Port Moody, and blacked out the surrounding neighbourhood, forcing nearby St. Joseph’s Parish Catholic church to hold its services by candlelight.
Ron Coulson, chief of Port Moody Fire Rescue, said his department got the call around 3:05 a.m. When firefighters arrived both homes at the corner of Moody and Henry streets — that were completely framed but hadn’t yet been “locked down” with all doors and windows installed — were fully-involved.
He said a second alarm was immediately issued and the 16 firefighters on scene went into a defensive mode to ensure the blaze didn’t spread to neighbouring structures.
“It was a substantial-sized fire, ejecting a lot of products into the neighbourhood like ash on cars,” he said, adding drizzly weather at the time helped lessen the risk to other buildings.
Still, two coach houses also under construction on the properties were singed, Coulson said, siding was melted on another neighbouring house and one home was evacuated as a precaution. As well, a hydro pole caught fire, damaging a transformer. That cut power to several homes and the church until hydro crews were able to replace the pole later Sunday and electricity was restored late in the afternoon.
Father Mark McGuckin of St. Joseph’s Parish, that’s just north of the houses that burned, said he was awoken by the smell of smoke and all the commotion. He had to inform his parishioners that Sunday’s first mass, which has been held virtually through the pandemic, would have to be done in-person instead. The other two masses scheduled for the day went ahead in the church as usual, but all had to be conducted by candlelight.
“It was kind of old-school,” he said, adding the only other time of the year services are conducted by candlelight is for the Easter vigil. “We just had to project our voices a bit more.”
Coulson said nobody was injured in the fire and the cause is still under investigation.
He added given the amount of damage to the structures, which collapsed into their foundations, that may be hard to determine.
Coulson said fire departments count on contractors taking proper security measures to keep sites that are under construction secure and safe “but there’s always a risk from things like drywall heaters.”
