CALGARY – High winds drove a massive blaze in the northwest that consumed three houses and badly damaged two others Sunday afternoon.
Fire officials don’t know the cause of the blaze yet, but said no people or pets were injured in the fire on Citadel Acres Close N.W.
“This has been a wind-driven fire,” Calgary Fire Department battalion chief Don Huska said.
“The closeness of the buildings is an ongoing, standing concern for us. The contributing factor for us (Sunday) was the wind and the weather.”
The fire happened just one street over from a blaze in Dec. 2009 that destroyed five homes and damaged three others on Citdel Forest Place N.W.
The 2009 blaze was started by an illegal marijuana grow op in the basement in one of the homes and quickly spread to neighbouring houses due to howling winds during a winter storm.
Sunday’s fire jumped from house to house and fire department officials said there was already a large volume of smoke and flame when the first crews arrived at about 3 p.m.
Tammy Enns and her two sons had been at a birthday party in Chestermere when they came home to see their house on fire.
Enns’ first thought wasn’t about her possessions, but that her dog was in the home.
“I parked at my neighbour’s house and ran to get the dog,” said Enns. “I booted it down the street and some neighbours got there before me and got him.”
Jake wasn’t hurt, but Enns’ home along with two other houses are destroyed. Two more residences are badly damaged.
“The house is just a house,” said Enns, with tears in her eyes. “I’d rather have Jake than the house.”
Enns’ husband was headed out-of-province for work, but is headed back to deal with the aftermath. Their two young sons Ethan, 10, and Jaden, 7, haven’t fully realized the extent of the fire, but Enns said after living on the street for nine years their neighbours are making sure the family isn’t cold or hungry.
“Someone brought me a jacket,” noted Enns, while a chilly wind whipped around the backyard where they could plainly see the smoking ruins of the homes.
“There’s a lot of neighbours that came out and brought food and blankets – it’s so good.”
Neighbours James Martsch and Greg Snow felt the heat and saw the thick smoke when they broke a window to rescue Jake, the dog. The pair was speckled with soot while standing outside their homes on the evacuation order from the fire department.
“There was a concern about embers flying on this side of the street,” said Snow, whose house is on the corner. Martsch’s home is two away from the Enns’ residence.
“It’s pretty close,” noted Martsch. “We’re going to be OK, I think.”
Another man watched stoically as his house was totally consumed by the flames. He didn’t want to be identified and said he was inside sleeping when he smelled smoke. He was the only one inside the home at the time.
The speed the fire spread prompted the first crews on scene to call for reinforcements within minutes.
Six engines, three aerial ladder trucks and a crew of over 40 fought the three-alarm blaze, which also forced the evacuation of several homes along the street.
Smoke was visible from Stoney Trail and a crowd of a couple hundred watched fire fighters tackle the flames with foam and water.
For Darren and Tracy Carmelo, who have lived in the community for 12 years, the fire brought back bad memories of the 2009 blaze.
“We’re on the street where the fire was a couple of years ago,” said Darren.
“Just hearing the sirens before I saw the smoke was just terrifying,” added Tracy. “It’s way too close to home.”
Although the 2009 fire was started by haphazard electrical wiring connected to the grow op, the speed it was able to spread concerned officials.
Last December, the Calgary Fire Department lobbied for changes to provincial regulations that would make sprinklers mandatory in all new one- or two-family homes.
City officials also recommended increasing the minimum distance a home can be built from the property line.
Officials said proximity between houses, along with lighter building materials and an increasing number of fixtures and household goods made from plastics, are accelerating fires and decreasing the amount of time people have to escape a blaze.
Calgary Herald
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