Fire crews were called to a house fire on Atkins Road at about 10:30 this morning. The fire had extended from the first floor up into the second floor.

Crews knocked down the fire and opened up walls and floors to extinguish the extension of the fire.

Members of the household were assisted by the Emergency Support Services team. 

The joint West Shore Fire Investigation Team will investigate the cause and origin. Firefighters at the scene were considering it an accidental fire.

We are fortunate to have seamless service between departments on the West Shore thanks to automatic and mutual aid agreements. For example, when View Royal was called out this morning, Colwood Fire provided automatic aid and the Langford and Esquimalt departments monitored the area in case of a simultaneous emergency call out.

Colwood Fire Chief John Cassidy notes this event is a good reminder that working smoke alarms save lives and can make a big difference in response time and extent of damage from fire.