No one was home at the time when a fire heavily damaged a three-storey house near Port Alberni on Friday night.
Port Alberni Deputy Fire Chief Travis Cross said firefighters responded to reports of a house fire at the 5400-block of River Road around 10:30 p.m.
By the time firefighters arrived, the house was already “fully involved” in flames and several windows had been shattered by the heat, he said.
Due to the extent of the fire, firefighters could not access the interior and had to fight the fire from the outside, he said.
The residents of the house are being helped by emergency social services, Cross said.
As the building is on Hupacasath reserve land, the cause of the fire will be up to the RCMP to investigate, he said.
Firefighters from the Beaver Creek, Cherry Creek and Sproat Lake fire departments assisted.
A section of River Road between Josephine Street and Beaver Creek Road, which forms part of Highway 4, was limited to single-lane alternating traffic for several hours during fire suppression efforts.
On Saturday, a big hole in the roof of the home was visible to anyone driving past, according to an employee who answered the phone at a nearby restaurant.