A 1912 building and historical artifacts were spared the flames Wednesday as the Central Saanich Fire Department managed to control a small fire in a building at Heritage Acres.
Three trucks and 11 firefighters were on scene around noon at the historical grounds and had the fire under control in about 15 minutes, said Central Saanich Fire Chief Chris Vrabel. “It wasn’t too intense but there was still a lot of risk there to the heritage artifacts,” said Vrabel.
The blaze, which appears to have started where the chimney of a wood stove in a workshop enters an old roof, was contained to a small annex building attached to the site’s Tillicum Building that houses several historical artifacts.
Vrabel said when crews got to the scene the fire was spreading quickly, but they contained it to the roof of the small annex building. “What made it tricky for us was there were a number of volunteers in that building trying to remove the artifacts,” said Vrabel.
Philip Clark, president of the Saanich Historical Artifacts Society that runs Heritage Acres, said the fire department did a great job of containing the fire quickly and not allowing it to spread to the site’s display buildings.
“The only damage was to the annex building,” he said, noting the 1912 Tillicum Building, which houses old vehicles, buggies and horse-drawn equipment, was untouched. The society collects, restores and displays artifacts from the Island’s rural past and has a large collection of working steam engines, tractors, agricultural machinery, and household and industrial artifacts. Heritage Acres also has a chapel and schoolhouse among its buildings that can be used for receptions and meetings.
Clark said there will be quite a bit of clean-up to do, and then they will rebuild the roof of the annex building. The 29-acre Heritage Acres site, at 7321 Lochside Dr., has been closed during the pandemic, though it can be booked for small gatherings.
