Jay Metzler happened to be outside his southeast Calgary home Sunday when he noticed smoke billowing from his neighbours’ garage and he immediately sprung into action.
Metzler went around to the back of the garage and saw flames shooting out of the doors, which were open.
“I tried to put it out with a bucket of snow… I failed, came back and told my girlfriend, ‘call 911’ and proceeded to bang on the door trying to get the attention of the neighbour,” Metzler said.
There was no one in the upstairs of the residence at the time of the fire, but there were several people in the basement and they heard Metzler knocking on the door. Two people got out of the house safely.
The Calgary Fire Department responded to reports of the garage fire at the property in the 100 block of Pensacola Close just before 11 a.m. Sunday.
When they arrived, officials said the fire had spread from the detached garage to a shed and the house.
Fire crews were able to contain the blaze but the house suffered significant damage to the back, roof and main floor. The garage completely collapsed.
“The initial attack was to try to keep the fire away from the house but unfortunately it had already gained some ground on the house. So we had to go on offensive attack on the inside of the structure to try to contain it but it had unfortunately gone up into the roof area and we had to fight the fire on the roof,” battalion chief Paul Leblanc said.
Metlzer was forced out of his home next door, along with his partner and seven children.
It’s all too familiar for Metzler, who lost his house to a fire in Vancouver.
“I experienced this back in 2003 when my house burned to the ground and my daughter was just two months old, so this is a big recap for me,” Metzler said. “This is just a huge déjà vu reminder, recap, devastating and it just hurts
“We were really worried about the tenants upstairs because we had no clue where they were, but we know now they’re at church and they are safe,” Metzler said.
Several homes near the residence that caught fire were also evacuated.
Karlee Gosnell, who lives next door, said it was very cold and scary at first.
“I just woke up when my mother-in-law came running downstairs saying the neighbours’ house was on fire,” Gosnell said. “We ran upstairs to look at it and I woke him (family) up and then they told us we had to get out, so we grab the dog, grab the kids and got out.”
Fire crews continued to monitor hot spots throughout the day.
Investigators said there were no reported injuries and crews successfully rescued 3 family pets, a rabbit and 2 cats.
“I’m glad that we were able to get over there and get them up and get them alerted and get them out,” Metzler said.
Officials continue to investigate the cause but are reminding people of the warnings in these cold temperatures.
“We’ve seen anything from makeshift heating devices that will get into combustible materials. If you have any kind of a heat source you need to make sure that the combustible materials are well away from the source itself,” Leblanc said. “Most of the time we will see some antiquated heating systems – so old furnaces, garage heaters – those need to be checked once a year for proper combustion and proper use.”
With files from Carolyn Kury de Castillo