Mill Bay Fire Chief Ron Beck says firefighters received a call shortly after 3 p.m. after a report of a structure fire on Arbutus Terrace off Inlet Drive. “When we got to the scene, the house was fully involved. It’s completely destroyed,” Beck said in an interview. Video taken in North Saanich amid the fire and sent to CHEK News shows black smoke billowing into the sky over Mill Bay. Beck said more than two dozen firefighters were called to help. “We had many halls attend. We had Shawnigan Lake Mutual Aid and Cowichan Bay Mutual Aid with us,” he said. “We probably had about 30 to 35 firefighters.” Beck summed it up as a busy call that saw crews working to completely shut down the hotspots until 3 a.m. Sunday. “It took a while,” he explained. But things could have turned out much worse, Beck noted. That’s because the fire had started to spread to nearby bush when firefighters first arrived. “We’re lucky we didn’t have wind at that time of day or it could have been a different scenario,” Beck said. “It’s funny because we usually experience winds of at least 10 to 15 kilometers at that time of day. If that had happened, the fire would have been well into the bush and we would have had a wildfire situation on our hands.” Beck said that although the residents are now displaced, the two people who were in the home at the time of the fire made it out okay. “Both were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries,” he said. “A couple burns and stuff like that.” Four pets also resided in the home, including two dogs and two cats. “We had a dog that got out of the house and was found on the beach. We’re still looking for the other one,” Beck added. The Find Lost & Escaped Dog Vancouver Island (FLED) Facebook group posted about the missing dogs Saturday night, saying Todd has been found but Butch is still missing. In an update Sunday, FLED said Butch was found dead. “We were so hoping we’d never have to post this, but unfortunately, Butch didn’t come out…” the team said. “We are so sorry for this family and send all our prayers.” The fire remains under investigation with the cause unknown at this time.
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