Surrey home gutted by Monday night fire

A Surrey home was gutted by fire Monday night, displacing six people and sending thick plumes of smoke into the sky.

The blaze began around 9 p.m. in the 18000 block of 66A Avenue in Cloverdale.

Video shows the multi-storey, single-family home ablaze, with heavy damage to the facade and roof. A white vehicle in the driveway is also in flames.

Greg McRobbie, assistant chief of operations with the Surrey Fire Service, said the fire was centred around the garage and main living area, and then spread upward toward the second floor.

He said there were no injuries and all five residents of the main-level home were evacuated. One person in the basement was also accounted for before firefighters entered the building, he said.

George Mah, who lives next door to the affected home, told CBC News his family heard a loud explosion Monday night.

"My daughters were up in the bedroom just behind me here, and they heard like a pop, glass shatter. And they looked out the window and they saw the flames coming up the garage," he said.

"It was a very intense fire."

McRobbie said the neighbouring homes suffered some damage, but it was "mostly exterior" and those residents were allowed to return Monday night.

Mah said the side of their home has some fire damage, but he considers himself fortunate. 

"I feel more for the family, like we're fortunate that the fire didn't jump."

Surrey police told CBC News Tuesday morning that fire officials had advised them the fire's origin could have been an electric vehicle in the driveway, but that investigators were still working to determine the cause.

McRobbie said "everything was on fire" when crews arrived and that he didn't want to speculate on what started the blaze.

"Fire investigation crews are on scene right now, gonna determine what the cause was, the point of origin possibly," he said, adding that nothing currently indicates it was suspicious.