Abandoned barn destroyed in southeast Edmonton fire

An abandoned barn was destroyed in a fire in southeast Edmonton on Tuesday afternoon.

Firefighters were called to the area of Whitemud Drive and 17 Street, behind a nearby Walmart, at around 4:10 p.m.

Video from the Global 1 news helicopter showed firefighters dousing the barn and surrounding grass at around 4:30 p.m.

Large plumes of grey smoke filled the air.

District chief Terry Krucik said when firefighters arrived, the barn was engulfed in flames and the fire was spreading towards the train tracks.

“It was actually at the tracks. The guys were able to get it under control there with the use of our all-terrain pumpers,” he said. “It started in the farm yard and moved toward the tracks.

“This is an abandoned farm property. It’s actually scheduled to be demolished. There was no one living there at the time, but there was still active power, gas and septic systems that we had to look out for.”

Thirty-two firefighters were involved in battling the blaze, which was brought under control shortly after 5:30 p.m.

Krucik said the hot weather was tough on fire crews as the temperature hovered around the 29 C mark at the time.

“Our firefighters are more used to cold weather than hot weather, so it took a round out of them,” he said. “All firefighters are checked out by EMS upon exiting the fire and we’ve had no injuries.”

Traffic heading east on the Whitemud was moving slowly at around 5 p.m.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.