More than 100 people remain displaced after Duncan, B.C., apartment fire

More than 100 people remain out of their homes two days after a fire tore through the Parkland Place Apartment complex in Duncan, B.C., on Sunday.

Four of the 120 units were completely destroyed, while many others sustained significant smoke and water damage.

Sylvia Paterson is among those who may have lost everything in the fire. 

"There were two loud explosions and the way that fire went up so fast, I mean it was up to the fourth floor in a matter of minutes," she said, sitting outside an emergency centre that has been set up in Duncan.

Paterson said her grandson managed to scramble down a ladder thrown up by a neighbour just before the fire blew out the window in his bedroom.

"So you could say we got out of there in the nick of time."

Approximately 40 of the displaced residents have been sleeping on air mattresses on the gym floor of the Island Saving rec centre. Between 60 and 80 residents have been using the meal service provided as part of the 72-hour provincial emergency program, which is set to expire Wednesday morning.

Officials with the Cowichan Valley Regional District are assessing whether to ask for an extension to the emergency program.

"It all depends on the situation at the site," said John Elzinga, CVRD Community Services manager.

"My understanding is that the power was turned back on yesterday and water has been turned back on. They're going to be looking at alarm systems today and tomorrow and if those are in place, the facility will be available for people to access again."

Elzinga says some people could be back in their units in the less severely damaged parts of the complex in a day or two. 

He says the CVRD and partner agencies, including the Red Cross, are working on long-term plans for the residents of the worst-hit units. That includes trying to find replacement housing in a very tight market.

"They do have a bit of a challenge," he said. 

The lack of affordable rental housing in the Cowichan Valley worries Paterson, who has been told her unit could be uninhabitable for about a year.

For now she is staying in a motel, but the future is uncertain.

"There's not much to rent around the Duncan area. We don't know how we are going to go," she said.

This also happens to be the second time Paterson has lost everything. She lived through a fire in the same Duncan apartment building in 2014.

"After the last fire, I went down and got tenants insurance," she said "Thank God."

With files from On The Island