Human error is being blamed for a fire last week at an under-construction house in White Rock.
"It's what we call human failing, and it's ignorance of hazard," deputy fire Chief Bob Schlase said Monday.
The blaze broke out at the Maple Street home around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday (Dec. 12), as framers worked in the basement and a roofer was "torching" a rubber seal.
Schlase said the torch ignited fumes from a product that was being used to prime the wood.
"I don't think they understood how severe the product is for that possibility," Schlase said, noting the primer was about six feet away from where the roofer was working.
The 32-year-old roofer, who jumped to escape the fire, suffered a broken wrist and second-degree burns to 20 per cent of his body.