A Hamilton Drive homeowner was shaken up when a passerby knocked on her door to tell her her house was on fire, Friday afternoon in Port Alberni.
A man had been passing the house and noticed smoke, fire Chief Tim Pley said. The man knocked on the homeowner's door and told her there was a fire, then he used a garden hose to water down the smoking siding as they waited for fire crews to arrive.
"His actions held (the fire) from getting larger," Pley said.
Early indications are that the fire started in the chimney area, he said. Firefighters chopped and sawed their way through wooden siding and the wall to get at the chimney.
Firefighters were also checking soffits and the attic, where a small fire was also detected and extinguished, Pley said.