House destroyed by fire in Kelowna; six homeless

KELOWNA – Six people are looking for a place to spend the night after their home was destroyed by fire Sunday morning in Kelowna.

Firefighters were called to the house at 2642 Monford Road in north Glenmore around 9 a.m. They arrived to find flames shooting out of the building and a tower of grey smoke, which could be seen, for kilometres.

The only two people home at the time of the fire made it out safely, according to platoon captain Kelly Stephens.

“It looks like the house is a complete loss,” he says. “On arrival it was almost fully involved and had been going for some time.”

Stephens says there were some expensive vehicles inside the attached garage, which crews managed to save.

The two young men who escaped the flames and smoke were checked over by B.C. Ambulance paramedics as a precaution.

The owner of the house and his renters, mostly university students, are in the care of Emergency Social Services until their insurance claims are sorted out.

No word yet on the cause of the fire, which Stephenson says started somewhere inside the house. Investigators will be on the scene Monday looking for clues as to the fire's origin.

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To contact the reporter for this story, email Howard Alexander at halexander@infonews.ca or call 250-491-0331. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

— This story was updated at 12:33 p.m, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2014 to add a photo and update details.