West Kelowna Fire Rescue responded to the call at 2:15 p.m. today, April 3, 2017.

(JENNA HICKMAN / iNFOnews.ca)

WEST KELOWNA – Firefighters are working to completely extinguish a barn fire in West Kelowna this afternoon.

Crews got the call at about 2:15 p.m., April 3, and arrived to find the barn at the farm in the 2200 block of Hayman Road just off Boucherie Road engulfed in flames.

Assistant fire chief Chad Gartrell calls the barn fire aggressive. Crews had the fire knocked down quickly, but it took almost 30 minutes to bring it under control.

Firefighters kept the fire from spreading to a nearby home and no one was hurt.

The Romanchuk family farm raises chickens and sells the eggs to local grocery stores, according to neighbour Julie Pringle.

Joy Romanchuk, 16, who lives on the farm says the barn was used for storage and no animals were kept inside.

"I was about to make some dessert for dinner when my younger brother came inside yelling there was a fire," she said. "I got the rest of the kids and our two dogs and got them to safety."

The family's chickens were housed in a bus beside the engulfed barn, but she says they let them out when they discovered the blaze.

All together nine people -  seven children and their parents - live in the house. According to Joy, the barn housed tools, siding for their house - that was supposed to go on this summer - and their winter storage.

Gartrell says the cause of the fire is not suspicious, but due to the amount of damage to the barn, the cause "will remain undetermined."

West Kelowna Fire Rescue had the fire under control in about 30 minutes.

(JENNA HICKMAN / iNFOnews.ca)

— This story was updated at 3:33 p.m., Tuesday, April 4, 2017 to correct the spelling to the family's last name.

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