Extreme cold weather hampered Calgary firefighters’ efforts as they responded to a house fire in the Lake Bonavista neighbourhood on Boxing Day.
At around 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday evening, the Calgary Fire Department arrived at a home in the 500-block of Lake Moraine Green SE to find smoke and 20-foot flames emerging from the rear.
Two people were home at the time but were able to safely evacuate. A pet reptile was also safely evacuated.
According to battalion Chief Stu Laird, firefighters were challenged by the extreme cold weather conditions which required all hose lines to maintain water flow to ensure water did not freeze.
“We have to keep all our water lines flowing… we’re changing out the crews as quickly as we can so they’re staying safe and warm,” Laird said.
“We have more crews than we normally would. We just want to make sure we keep our people safe so they can do their job effectively.”
Firefighters were able to bring down the flames from the outside before aggressively moving to the interior.
On Tuesday night, the air temperature was a frigid -25 C but with the wind chill, felt closer to -33 C.
No one was injured. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
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