Fire damages under-construction home in Alberta Avenue neighbourhood

Firefighters were called Monday morning to a fire at a house being built in a central Edmonton neighbourhood.

Crews were called to a home under construction on 95A Street, north of 112 Avenue, just after 5 a.m. and arrived on scene about five minutes later.

“Pump 5 arrived on scene and there was a working fire — it was going up the front of the building and it was fully involved into the roof trusses on their arrival,” said Edmonton Fire Rescue Services district chief Marty McNamara.

Five firefighting units were called to the front-to-back duplex in the Alberta Avenue area, which was framed and had windows and a roof, but no siding yet.

“The fire was contained to the front of the building and the back of the building seems unaffected,” McNamara said.

McNamara said crews searched the property and didn’t find anyone inside it. Firefighters quickly put out the flames and as of around 6:30 a.m., were still on scene putting out hot spots in the basement.

The fire happened just down the road from Edmonton Fire Station 5.

“It’s just fortunate that we were able to get here with a quick response,” McNamara said. “They were able to get on the fire quick so there was no exposures. The fire was extinguished rapidly.”

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Edmonton police and fire investigators were called out, but it’s not yet known if the fire was suspicious or an accident.

McNamara said investigators are called to every residential or working fire.

No one was injured in the fire and a damage estimate has yet to be done.

Dorte Weber lives nearby. He says it’s a lovely neighbourhood but “could be better.”

“It’s a pity. We like to see the neighbourhood improving. New houses coming in, new families coming in. It’s good for the neighbourhood, it’s good for the schools, it’s good for everybody. And this is going to put people off.”

A construction worker who spoke to Global News near the scene said this the fourth development he’s worked on in the area that has gone up in flames.

“Police are, I’m sure, doing what they can,” said Clarence McGill, whose daughter lives in the area.

“Somebody has to step up their game… I’m sure they’re doing everything they can but it’s frustrating, to say the least.”

2:05 Fire damages under-construction home in Alberta Avenue neighbourhood

It’s the latest blaze in an area that has seen an uptick in fire calls this past year.

In a six-month period between May and October of this year, there were 281 fire-related events — compared with 148 in the six-month period between November 2020 and April.

The fastest-growing cause is fires that are deliberately set or are suspicious, and fires in vacant buildings and outside are seeing the largest increase in frequency, EFRS said when releasing the data last week.

The fire department is improving its data collection and reporting systems to better track the fires and determine the root causes.

All fire incidents — regardless of cause, criminality or severity — are also now reported directly to Edmonton police in real time to improve the response.

1:41 Number of suspicious and deliberately set fires increasing in northeast Edmonton

—with files from Emily Mertz, Global News