Fire crews were called to a structure fire in southwest Edmonton Thursday morning, and now, the blaze is being considered arson.
The fire happened just off Anthony Henday Drive at 2am Thursday at an abandoned farm building near 199th Street and 51st Avenue.
When Edmonton Fire Rescue arrived, the building was already engulfed in flames.
“Getting here we saw that it was a fully involved abandoned building out in the field. There wasn’t a whole lot we could do,” says Captain Dale Malayko, who responded to the fire.
“We think it was an old abandoned farm house or this was a barn. The rest is gone. I don’t know if it is wood or if that’s an old building, but that’s been long gone and just the barn left.”
There was little that could be done to save the building, so crews concentrated on making sure the fire didn’t spread. A crew was sent into the surrounding area to make sure the fire didn’t jump into the grass or onto adjacent buildings. Fortunately, the fire didn’t spread.
“There is no worry of anything spreading, we just are monitoring it…right now it is at coal stage and we are just going to let it burn out. We’ll put some water on it at the end and terminate this incident shortly,” Malayko said early Thursday morning.
Crews say it was too wet for the fire to start naturally, so they believe it was deliberately set.
“Obviously this is arson. Something like this, being so wet, wouldn’t start on its own.”
Some witnesses were questioned but no suspects have been named.
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