A house fire and two motor vehicle accidents kept Oliver police and firefighters on their toes over the past week.
An Oliver family escaped a fire that started in the attic of their home on Tamarisk Street on Sunday, May 24.
Oliver Fire Department spokesman Rob Graham said a firefighter was on his way home when he noticed smoke billowing from the roof. Apparently the family was watching TV and didn’t know there was a fire, Graham pointed out.
“By the time we arrived there was a fair amount of smoke from the roof. Our crews were deployed quickly enough to keep the fire contained to the attic.”
No injuries were reported, but there was water damage to the home and some structural damage (charring of trusses).
Graham said it appeared the cause was attributed to some work that the homeowner was doing earlier in the day. The homeowner had been cutting a metal pipe, which smoldered and ignited combustible material.
On May 23, a driver was lucky to be alive after flipping his car on Highway 97 near Road 7.
The Oliver Fire Department was called to the scene, where a vehicle was on its roof laying on top of a damaged telephone pole.
Graham said it appeared the vehicle slipped and rolled into the pole.
“Luckily he (the driver) was not too seriously injured.”
Graham said Oliver RCMP are investigating, in which speed may have been a factor. Police could not be reached for comment.
The collision caused some low-hanging wires, resulting in traffic being diverted for a couple of hours.
On May 21, a transport truck nearly disintegrated a telephone pole just north of Oliver.
The truck slammed into the pole and a parked car, smashing the pole to smithereens and knocking the car more than two metres down the road.
According to witnesses the crash happened sometime around 6 a.m. on Highway 97, less than a kilometre north of the downtown core.
Stewart Sorensen was asleep when he heard a thunderous crash just outside his house.
“Honestly I thought it was a plane crashing into the mountainside here,” he said while waiting for his insurance company to show up.
According to Sorensen, the CDS Transport Incorporated truck slammed into a telephone pole, sending wood shards flying, and also hit his Volkswagen that was parked just behind it, demolishing the front of the car and knocking it down the street.
Sorensen said that after stopping and giving his insurance information, the driver of the truck—which was also slightly damaged—continued on his way.
Just after 9 a.m. the heavily damaged car sat more than two metres from the telephone pole, which was completely destroyed except for a small stump sticking from the ground.
Files from Trevor Nichols and Lyonel Doherty
