EDMONTON- Fire investigators say smoking materials are to blame for an apartment fire in northeast Edmonton Saturday.
Fire crews were called to Bella Vista Place, located at 35th Street and 118th Ave, shortly after 6:00 p.m.
“We pulled to the south end of the building. There was visible flames coming out the window and a lot of smoke,” explained Captain Murray Benson with Edmonton Fire Rescue Services.
About 100 people were forced from the building as crews worked to contain the blaze.
“We had reports of two people that jumped from the second floor on the east side of the building,” Murray said. “Another individual was taken from the building on the ladder.”
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“My five-year-old grandson saw black smoke going by our window,” said building resident Tracy Poole. “We ran out in our bare feet.”
Officials say the fire started in the manager’s suite on the second floor. It’s believed the smoking materials caught a mattress on fire.
Damage was mostly contained to the one suite, but Murray said some suites above and below suffered water and smoke damage.
Residents were allowed back inside the building around 9:00 p.m.
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