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Structure ignitions in the north Village of Lytton
1800 – Each of the five residential lots, a – e, have structures burning but only 3 homes are involved at 1800. The two homes not yet involved, b and e, both have sheds burning. The burning house, d, is fully involved suggesting it was the first to have significant structure flame spread. The house next door to the south, c, is heavily involved on the side adjacent to the burning house suggesting a structure-to-structure thermal influence. House a is smoking but does not show significant exterior flaming.
1813 – The initial burning home, d, has collapsed to a burning debris pile and the adjacent house to the south, c, is now heavily involved. The house, a, that had been smoking at 1800 is now fully involved. The house to the north, e, with the shed burning, is now fully involved. The other house, b, with a burning shed does not show signs of significant fire involvement.
1829 – The burning homes a, c, d and e, are largely consumed. Notably, house a, was only smoking at 1800, fully involved at 1813 and at 1829, shows little flame indicating near consumption in roughly 30 minutes. Similarly, the isolated house e, was not showing involvement at 1800, fully involved at 1813 and is in the last stage of consumption at 1829. Structures d and c appear to have burned the longest. House b shows no appearance of ignition; however, it burned to total destruction after 1829.
Structure ignitions in the north Village of Lytton
The following photo (Fig. 14), taken in a northwesterly direction at 1830 hrs, shows the Post Office (left) and two homes (right) that have ignited and are beginning to burn. Contiguous fire spread could not occur due to fuel gaps from streets and discontinuous fuels commonly between structures; thus, burning embers became the primary ignition source. This produced the structure “spot fire” ignition pattern of structures downwind of other burning structures. Except for the Post Office, all the primary structures bounded by Main and Fraser St, and 6 and 7 St were totally destroyed from ember-initiated ignitions.
