‘The whole sky was black’: Bedford neighbourhood left shaken after fire destroys home

A weekend house fire in the community of Bedford, outside Halifax, has left a neighbourhood shaken and is raising concerns among firefighters about the municipality’s growth.

No one was injured in the fire, which damaged one home and left two others in need of serious repairs.

The blaze broke out Saturday evening, two doors down from Ankit Kumar’s townhouse on Helen Creighton Court.

He was at home chatting with a friend on the phone when he noticed something was amiss.

“I smelled some smoke coming from the back of my house. So I went out, and I initially thought someone was burning leaves. But when I came outside of my house I saw fire starting from the end of that house at the corner,” he said.

“It was drastic for everyone. People were running all around, the whole sky was black, we were not able to see.”

Kumar immediately called 911 and says he banged on the door of the house on fire, but no one was home.

Firefighting resources need to keep up with growth of city: union

Some 40 firefighters arrived on the scene and had the blaze under control in about half an hour. Despite the success, the union representing firefighters says they’re concerned about overall growth in the municipality, and how it affects their response times.

Brendan Meagher, president of the Halifax Professional Firefighters Association – IAFF Local 268, says he’s seen “significant growth in our city” since he started with Halifax Fire in 1997.

Yet, he says, the growth in the firefighting service hasn’t kept up pace.

“For example, when I started in 1997, I used to fight brush fires up in the area that is now Larry Uteck, which is essentially a small city on its own as a suburb of the city. And we still don’t have a fire station in that area open and serving that community,” he said.

“We’ve seen the population density increase significantly. West of Halifax, the density has increased significantly. There are plans to increase population density all over the city … so we need to chart a long-term course to have the fire service keep up.”

The townhouse fire in Bedford over the weekend presented its own challenges.

“If we’re not there quickly — communities where the homes are so close together — we have the concern of exposures and extension from one home to another,” said Meagher.

“So we could have multiple families impacted by not having enough people on scene fast enough to do what needs to be done.”

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He says the incoming council after this fall’s election should hear their concerns, and focus on hiring more firefighters and building more fire stations.

Retirements are looming, he says, and there needs to be a group of new hires ready to take over from firefighters with decades of experience.

“We have approximately 60 members of our 551 members of the Halifax Professional Firefighters that have over 30 years of service in now. So we are going to see some people exiting the workforce in the next couple of years and a lot of experience moving,” he said.

“What we saw in this year’s budget was proposed in the original budget: hiring in February of 2025 of 20 firefighters. That was amended to move it up to August of 2024. But there is no planned hire for early 2025 now.”

Meanwhile, those who live on Helen Creighton Court in Bedford are cleaning up the ashes, and trying to support the tenants who lived at the house damaged by fire.

Kumar says he’s spoken with the owner, who is shocked.

“The owner was very disappointed. I spoke with him directly, and it was a huge loss for the society here,” Kumar said.