{"id":638068,"date":"2026-04-30T07:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T07:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/638068\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T07:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T07:03:15","slug":"did-a-meteor-spark-a-fire-in-a-chalet-on-mount-washington-bc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/638068\/","title":{"rendered":"Did a meteor spark a fire in a chalet on Mount Washington? &#8211; BC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A chalet on <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/mount-washington\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mount Washington<\/a> was destroyed by a fast-moving fire on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Flames were spotted just after midnight in the unoccupied home on Fosters Avenue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStarted hearing some noises, assuming now that was all of the glass of the windows breaking,\u201d witness Jamie Laidler told Global News.<\/p>\n<p>Another witness, Cam Henderson, said that by the time the group made their way toward the fire, the building was fully engulfed.<\/p>\n<p>However, flames were not the only thing lighting up the sky on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n<p>Henderson said that shortly after midnight, there was a bright blue flash in the sky.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is evidence now that there was a meteor last night at the same time,\u201d Laidler added.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>According to the American Meteor Society, the fireball was reported by hundreds of eyewitnesses at 12:12 a.m. Pacific time.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767930311_275_national.jpg\" alt=\"Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won't miss a trending story.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n<p>Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won&#8217;t miss a trending story.<\/p>\n<p>Minutes later, the handful of people who happened to be staying on Mount Washington spotted the flames in the unoccupied chalet.<\/p>\n<p>They called 911.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe roof was fully engulfed,\u201d fire captain Chris Hounsell told Global News.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShortly after that, the roof collapsed in on the structure and we started protecting the two structures next to it for exposure protection.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'Mount Washington faces severe water shortage'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1208_mt_wash_water.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:57<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMount Washington faces severe water shortage\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>It is not the first time flames have ripped through the alpine resort.<\/p>\n<p>In March 2020, a large fire destroyed another chalet and eight people had to escape.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, another blaze destroyed three additional structures, underscoring the need for fire protection on the mountain.<\/p>\n<p>The Comox Valley Regional District has since purchased property for a dedicated fire hall that is set to open later this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do have about a handful of firefighters that do live up here year-round,\u201d Hounsell added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd we also have partnerships with Oyster River and Merville and they do respond as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It is not 100 per cent clear that the meteor actually caused the fire, but the cause is still under investigation.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A chalet on Mount Washington was destroyed by a fast-moving fire on Tuesday night. Flames were spotted just&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,1132,19722,142180,66,306],"class_list":["post-638068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fire","tag-meteor","tag-mount-washington","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}