Occupants of a North Surrey home are lucky to be alive after a fire early Saturday morning left a house heavily damaged.
The blaze broke out at approximately 2 a.m. in the 9600-block of 139 Street. Ten people were living in the home, including the family, which reportedly bought the house last August.
“I just felt this heat, I heard a guy saying 'fire, fire, everyone out,' and they were getting buckets from the washroom trying to douse it out,” Ranier Casido, a kndergarten teacher who was renting a room in the home, told CTV News.
Residents scrambled to remove as many possessions as they could from the house. Most of what was left inside was destroyed.
The owner of the home told firefighters the blaze began in the furnace area. The residents, which included the parents and grandparents of a young child as well as a pair of renters, received help for emergency services as well as local churches.
Kaye Viray was also renting a room in the house, and although he lost all his belongings and a pet bird, he was concerned for the family which owned the house.
“It’s all they have,” he told CTV News. “It’s just heartbreaking to see them like that.”