I remember this fire. But the 6th child who they could not locate was actually up at the Columbia Valley Bible camp, on a week long camping trip that alot of students in grades 6 and 7 went on. He was in my class at school. And I lived down the street. I remember him at camp, being quite sad and withdrawn. And also, Hetty Frederickson lived close to us in Kelsey Bay, on Vancouver Island. Coincidence that we ended up moving to Chilliwack and living so close in a town quite far from Kelsey Bay. My parents knew her.

They believe it was open paint cans stored too close to the hot water tank.

IT was a faulty hot water tank. that blew up in the basement, and there was paint stored nearby which caught fire.

My mother Hetty Fredrickson was visiting me in Holland in 1968.
These people broke in and destroyed personal belongings, stealing all sorts of stuff and left the walls smeared with paint and hateful slogans. My mother was in tears when she came home. They were
not hippies or musicians, but ordinary hooligans! Some of them I knew personally, I will not mention names, but would like the real story to be known. Thank you!

To Answer your question, it was a hot water tank that exploded and caught fire as it was mixed with some paints and thinners that had been stored in the basement near to the hot water tank. There were a husband and wife home at the time, sleeping, with their 5 children. The Father and Mother had to lower the 3 younger children aging from 10 to 13, by holding their arms and dropping them into the arms of the waiting neighbours. The older boy aged 16 escaped from his lower first-floor bedroom window wearing only a blanket, he wrapped himself in. It was thought that there was the sixth child, which due to neighbours informing fireman that only 5 children had escaped the fire, the family actually had 6 kids. A fireman tried to reenter the home to look for the sixth child, believed to be still in the house, and ended up being severely burned on his hand. Which made him have to retreat from the house. It was later discovered that the sixth child was away at a friend’s house. The Mother of the home received severe smoke inhalation and had to be rushed by ambulance to the Chilliwack Hospital, and was released later that evening. The home was completely gutted, and only a few items were salvageable by the family.

It was later discovered that the Local Fire Chief, who lived 4 blocks away from the home, had arrived on scene within a short time of the fire being discovered. As he stated that he woke to sounds of Rick Trehearne, screaming Fire, Fire, Fire, Help us!!!

I hope this answers any questions you may have had.

They believe it was a faultt hot water tank that caused the fire to the house