One person was hospitalized following a morning fire in Calgary’s Beltline neighbourhood in a vacant building that appeared to have people staying in it.
The Calgary Fire Department received calls about smoke coming out of a two-storey industrial building at the corner of 10th Street and 11th Avenue Southwest.
“Crews arrived shortly after, gained access to the building. They did find heavy smoke coming from the building and did a primary attack on the fire as well as a primary search to locate any patients at all,” Calgary Fire Battalion Chief Scott Cowan told Global News. “They didn’t find anybody inside, but we understand that a couple of people did self evacuate.”
AHS EMS said witnesses reported seeing people running from the building before fire crews arrived.
A broken window on the building’s second floor window was seen during the firefighting efforts.
“The information that I had was they jumped out of the first storey window, which is about four-and-a-half-feet high, so not the second floor window,” Cowan said. “That second floor window is where we accessed the structure. That was opened by us.”
Cowan said one person was taken to hospital. EMS said one person with serious burns was taken to hospital in non-life-threatening condition.
The battalion chief said it looked like people were accessing the building despite the owners’ efforts to keep it boarded up.
Cowan said fighting fires in abandoned buildings presents unique challenges.
“We treat every building as if there are people in potentially inside,” he said. “So, it’s a challenge for us if there’s vacant buildings where sometimes the floor plans are difficult to search. We’re not sure where people are and it just makes it a bit of a challenge for us, but it’s something that we work through.”