UPDATE 12:35 p.m.
The cause of the fire behind Jackie Wilson’s house in Peachland on Tuesday night will officially decline as undetermined.
However, several witnesses and a video sent to Castanet show a ball of fire descending from the sky, landing in a courtyard on Ponderosa Drive, and lighting a fire around 9 p.m.
Brushes and grass on the steep slope ignited into a large fire and scorched the deck of the house before the fire brigade’s quick action saved the residence.
“If it was the middle of the night and the guy downstairs hadn’t seen and reported the fire, who knows what would have happened,” said Wilson.
“We have propane tanks and a grill on the deck and if it got there it would have been really serious.”
The Peachland Fire Department says with the amount of water they threw on the fire, any evidence of what came from the sky is probably long gone.
Fire chief Dennis Craig said they weren’t sure what caused the fire initially until they watched the video and heard the person who called the fire saw the fireball fall from the sky.
“It will go down in our books as indefinite … until we find this solid piece of evidence,” said Craig.
“But right now I’m not a scientist or a geologist, but I’d probably be more inclined to a sky lantern as a possible cause,” he said.
He said they know it wasn’t a torch or fireworks as they both look very different from what was recorded in the video.
Research has also shown that meteorites are usually cold when they hit the earth and don’t burn on impact. A piece of metal space junk is also possible.
Wilson now has high praise for the fire department.
“They were amazing and stayed long to make sure everything was outside and the hotspots were ready. You did a great job. “
UPDATE: MARCH 17, 8:50 am
The cause of a fire in a house on Ponderosa Drive and 2nd Avenue in Peachland is officially classified as undetermined.
However, Dennis Craig, Peachland’s chief fire officer, says he can’t rule out the possibility that it was triggered by a falling meteorite or space debris.
I’m not an astrophysicist, he told Castanet News on Wednesday morning.
Craig says the crews were able to put out the fire, which quickly lit in a back yard near a deck, limiting the damage to one siding in the house.
He described it as a fast moving grass fire.
Just before the fire started, Jay Balehowsky noticed a bright object in the sky. He told Castanet that a piece broke off and fell into the neighbor’s yard.
The video shows the object breaking apart.
Craig says fire investigators will return to the scene later today.
ORIGINAL: MARCH 16, 9:35 p.m.
It seems like debris from space started a fire in the back yard of a house in Peachland on Tuesday night.
Jay Balehowsky, who lives right on Ponderosa Drive, says he saw the object in the sky around 9 p.m.
“It dissolved and a piece fell into the yard across the street,” he told Castanet News.
The object lit a fire a few meters from the deck of a house on Ponderosa.
The fire brigade reacted quickly and put out the fire.
It is unclear whether the fire spread to the house. Images captured from the road above show clouds of smoke and what appears to be sparks flying high in the air.
Not a word about the extent of the damage.
Castanet will be updated as more information becomes available.
