One person had died following a house fire in Cowichan Bay on Thursday, June 26.
Cowichan Bay Fire Rescue chief Dean Stennes said his department responded about 4 p.m. to the two-storey residential home on Hillbank Road.
"There were two residents in the structure," Stennes confirmed. "One passed away and one made it out."
BC Emergency Health Services said they were paged out at 4:07 p.m. to a structure fire in the 4600 block of Hillbank Road in Cowichan Bay.
"Two ambulances with primary care paramedics responded to the scene," said paramedic public information officer, Brian Twaites. "Paramedics assessed one patient who did not require hospital transport."
While they're trained to deal with emergencies, Stennes said situations like this one are "always tough on the crews."
Nearly two dozen firefighters attended to the fire with their tanker and pumper trucks.
"We had about 23 firefighters total, with mutual aid from Mill Bay," Stennes said. "We got there about 4 p.m. and left about 8 p.m."
Stennes said the cause of the fire is still under investigation by the Office of the Fire Commissioner but the home is a complete loss.
"It's still standing but there's too much fire damage," he said.
