An apartment building on Inlet Avenue had to be evacuated after a butane stove in one of the suites exploded.
It happened yesterday (Monday) morning around 11:20.
The Sunshine Coast RCMP say the 78-year-old tenant is lucky to have walked away uninjured.
Police are reporting he was using a butane powered stove when the fire started.
He left the room to look for something to smother the flames and that’s when the butane tank exploded.
It blew out his main window and pushed the exterior wall out almost one inch.
Sechelt Fire Department, Fire Chief, Trevor Pike says a structural engineer has determined the building, with the exception of the suite where the explosion happened, can be still be occupied.
Pike isn’t sure but figures there are about 36 suites.
Pike says the message here is not to use those appliances, intended for outdoor use, inside.
The Sechelt Fire Department was also called out to a workshop fire in West Porpoise Bay Monday.
The call came in just after 5.
Pike believes an electrical overload, specifically as a result of a space heater, was the problem.
The fire was in a two-story building and crews managed to contain the blaze to the top floor of the workshop.
In the meantime, the Gibsons and District Volunteer Fire Department has been getting some calls about a plume of smoke near the base of Mount Elphinstone.
The Department says it is being generated from an industrial incinerator that is operated at Elphinstone Aggregates.
The burn is on Crown land under Provincial jurisdiction.
