Terry Farrell
Record staff
The main house of a $2.3 million estate belonging to Comox developer Shawn Vincent has been destroyed by fire.
The property, on Anderton Road at Knight, is a current MLS listing, with an asking price of $2,288,888.
The 7,400 square-foot structure is one of two houses on the property.
Neighbour Dan McCullough said he was visiting his parents at their house just down the road when they heard a loud explosion.
“We heard a loud bang, sounded like a propane tank (explosion) and I said ’that’s either something that blew up, or something crashed. Really loud. It shook the windows of our house,” he said.
He said by the time they got to the property to inspect the source of the blast, first responders were already on site.
McCullough had passed the house 20 minutes earlier, en route to his parents’ home, and at that time there was no indication of anything amiss.
“We went outside [after the explosion] and through the trees we could see a huge plume of fire and smoke… we called 9-1-1 but the RCMP, police were already here. We seen a couple of trucks here, and the lights were flashing, so … some indication that maybe there was something going on before that. But we would have probably noticed it. I can’t imagine not seeing a fire.
“It’s a shame. It’s a beautiful home.”
Unconfirmed reports are that if there was anyone inside at the time, they all escaped safely.