Family of 4 escapes Surrey house fire

A large section of a house in a relatively rural part of Surrey, B.C., was gutted by an early morning fire, Friday.

Surrey fire crews were called to to the 8300-block of 192 Street at about 1:30 a.m., where they found a fire quickly spreading from the garage to the second floor of a home.

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Neighbour Eli Martin was watching television when he heard explosions thatsounded like gunshots.

"I heard a couple of them go off, and then I hear people coming out of their house screaming, 'Call 9-1-1!' I heard a woman screaming," said Martin."I just ran out here and you could just see the flames, and you hear a couple more big bangs, sounds like explosions."

Battalion Chief Rich Ellis said a family of four was able to escape the fire without injury.

"Everybody got out right away, the neighbours were banging on the door and they were able to get out," said Ellis, who added the family was very distraught, and a couple of pets still weren't located.

Ellis said, beyond some water damage from the fire hoses, and a little smoke damage, a large part of the house wasn't damaged by the fire.

"There'll be some substantial renovations and they'll hopefully be able to get back into the same house."