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Grease fire damages View Royal home

A grease fire exploded into a house fire in View Royal Sunday night.

A grease fire exploded into a house fire in View Royal Sunday night.

A mom and her daughter escaped with minor injuries from the second floor suite in a home in the 200 block of Helmcken Road at 6:30 p.m.

View Royal fire Chief Paul Hurst said the woman tried to use water to extinguish a pot with oil that had caught fire.

“This is a reminder that oil and fire and water don’t mix,” Hurst said, referring to the fact that grease fires explode violently if doused in water.

“It happens so fast. The (family) is lucky.”

The kitchen was badly damaged leaving the suite uninhabitable, Hurst said, and the lower suite had water damage.

The woman and her daughter escaped into the cold street with only night clothes and no shoes.

Emergency social services is helping the family find a new place to live.

Colwood and View Royal fire departments attended the blaze with 21 firefighters, and five vehicles.

Hurst said the cause of the fire is ruled accidental.

editor@goldstreamgazette.com