WATCH: Despite fire crews’ best efforts, a Springbank home engulfed in flames was reduced to rubble on Friday. Sarah Offin reports.
CALGARY – A million-dollar home west of Calgary is now a shell of what it once was, after a huge fireball consumed almost all 5,300 square feet of the property on Friday afternoon.
Fire crews from Rocky View County, Springbank, Bearspaw, Cochrane and Redwood Meadows were called to the intersection of Range Road 32 and Township Road 252, near Springbank Airport, just before 12 p.m.
“I saw smoke from the highway and I’m going, ‘Uh oh, better not be our place,” said concerned neighbour Kulvinder Shokar.
The homeowner, a father of two, said his wife called him at work to tell him about the fire.
RAW VIDEO: A massive house fire destroyed a home in Springbank, burning just before 12 p.m. on Friday.
Rocky View Fire Department District Chief Dax Huba said crews started a defensive attack after confirming no one was in the home. Over 10,000 litres of water was brought in by each fire truck as crews spent hours doing return trips in attempt to knock down the fire and stop its spread. Huba said at least part of the roof has collapsed into the main floor.
He said there are still some walls standing, but the home is likely a write-off.
Neighbours said the couple listed the six-bedroom walkout home shortly after they bought it.
“We haven’t had a chance to get to know them well,” said next door neighbour Loretta Bouwmeester. “They purchased just in the late fall…I think it was in late December.”
Residents said it’s not the first time they’ve witnessed such a loss; about five years ago the property next door also burned to the ground.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
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