Fire-damaged home may yet be restored

Partial demolition of city-owned Fleming House planned in wake of fire at site earlier this summer

Afire-damaged heritage home will be stripped to its timbers, with the site then secured to await a possible full restoration.

Engineering consultants are now assessing the state of the city-owned Fleming House, and will recommend ways in which the burned roof and siding could be removed while preserving the integrity of the heavy timbers inside the building.

“The plan is to demolish the house down to its timbers,” Martin Johansen, the city’s building services manager, said Monday.

“Then we’d make the site safe and sound, preserving the infrastructure for a possible full restoration project further down the road,” he said.

Potentially complicating factors include the likelihood the exterior of the building, which dates back to the late 19th century, contains lead paint, with asbestos inside the structure.

Partial demolition of the site, at the base of Dilworth Mountain near the Rails with Trails recreation corridor, could occur within a few months pending city council approval.

The unoccupied home was heavily damaged by a blaze in early July, which was believed to have grown from a campfire lit by homeless people.

It was built in 1871 for Frederick Brent, who owned a nearby grist mill considered to be Kelowna’s oldest industrial building.

Members of the Central Okanagan Heritage Society welcome the city’s intention to try to preserve the home’s heavy timber frame.

“Our understanding is the log structure, despite the fire, is very robust,” society president Don Knox said.

It’s a good example of an early building style, few of which remain in the Okanagan, Knox said.

Daily Courier file photo A partial demolition looms for this fire-damaged, city-owned heritage home at the bottom of Dilworth Mountain. While the roof and siding will be removed, the heavy timbers inside the home are worth saving, the city says.