Century-old home in Spences Bridge goes up in flames

Apr 26, 2018 | 3:42 PM

SPENCES BRIDGE, B.C. — A century-old home in Spences Bridge was reduced to ashes this morning, and it’s owner says this is the first year in the past 50 the structure had been uninsured.

The house was one of two on Mike Rice’s family property, and was home to his son Jake.

By the time anyone noticed the fire early this morning, the house was fully ablaze.

“My daughter, at 4:30 this morning, thought she slept in and thought the sun was shining in her bedroom window. She looked out her bedroom window and the house was fully engulfed in flames,” said Rice.” That’s when I ran out and started screaming for my son.”

Rice spent 45 frantic minutes screaming his son’s name before RCMP were able to ping his cellphone and determined he was in Cache Creek for the night.

With human safety secured, Rice and family members began the desperate work of saving the family business, Hilltop Gardens Farm.

“We moved a whole bunch of tires and saved our hothouse because we’ve got all of our tomato plants and all of our start-up for this year in the hothouse,” said Rice. “Somehow, some way, the plastic didn’t melt. I don’t know how that happened but it’s a miracle it didn’t melt the plastic and we saved all our plants for this year.”

“We’ve still got all of our fruit trees and everything. We’re blessed as far as that goes, we saved [the second] house.”

Ironically, it was fire that led to Rice’s insurance predicament.

Because of the economic devastation wrought by the 2017 wildfires, Hilltop didn’t generate enough revenue for Rice to pay a $9,000 renewal on his policy.

“I had no income. There was no traffic and the highway was closed and I didn’t have the $9,000 to get that insurance and so they cancelled me. I’ve had insurance for 50 years. This is the one year I didn’t have insurance,” said Rice through tears. “I’ve carried insurance and made sure it was paid up and everything, and the one year I can’t afford it because of the fires, the house burned down.”

A GoFundMe page has been launched to help the family begin to piece their lives together, even as their property still smolders.

“It’s our livelihood. With the forest fires last year, it was devastating enough and we were barely scraping by to start out this year. It’s hard to describe. It’s everything to us. It’s our beautiful place on Earth that we never want to leave and we never will. But this is pretty devastating.”

Rice says he’s grateful for the community coming together to offer its support, including a pair of risk-taking firefighters.

“I’ve still got two firefighters [here]. They put their jobs at risk because I’m out of the fire district and they’re not allowed to come out here. They said, ‘Screw it, it’s Hilltop. We’re going.’ They may get fired and get fined because they came out here to help me out.”

No official cause has been determined, but with no one in the century-old home at the time the fire ignited, Rice suspects the cause was electrical in nature.

“The house was 101 years old and the electrical panel was always a scary issue to me. When I looked out at 4:00, the flames were coming out of the middle of the house, and that’s right where the electrical panel was,” said Rice.

Rice admits he will take comfort in the positives in the coming days, such as the safety of his family, but for now, there is little to see but the ruins of a beloved family home.

“This place feeds me, my son, my daughter and our whole family. It’s everything, it’s our only income. My son is without a house now. He lost everything. His mother passed away a few years ago and everything he had of hers was in the house.”

“This is it for us. This is my retirement. I’m never leaving. I’m going to be put in the ground here somewhere. It’s my everything.”