Two people were sent to hospital, one of them in critical condition, after a fire broke out early Monday in the Mill Woods neighbourhood.
The fire at the Ridgewood apartment complex on the corner of 25 Avenue and 40 Street was reported just before 2 a.m., Edmonton Fire Rescue Services said.
Firefighters evacuated all 32 units. A second building to the southwest was exposed to the fire and 32 units in that building were also evacuated.
Additional firetrucks and crews were called in to tackle the blaze at the four-storey unit. A total of 12 trucks and roughly 45 firefighters were at the scene, officials said.
EMS transported two people to the hospital with one person in critical condition.
Shyam Mistry lives in a ground-floor suite of the building where the fire began. He said he and his family were awoken by the sound of the fire alarm.
“Initially I thought maybe it’s just a false alarm. After a minute I came back and I saw flames everywhere and that was the time we just got out of the house,” Mistry explained.
“We have two kids. Grabbed them and through the patio door, we went out.”
He said his children — aged three and eight — are doing OK.
“It was terrifying, yes. I didn’t realize actually, it would be this grade. But when we came out, we saw the blaze was really everywhere,” he said.
He hasn’t been able to get back into his home, but said he believes there will be massive water damage.
“It’s going to take at least one or two days for us to get in and take our belongings. But so far, we left with nothing. This is all we have,” he said, pointing to the few things he was able to grab.
Mistry said he’s never experienced anything like this before.
“We had a fire last year in one of the other buildings, but we’ve never experienced personally.”
Fini Titus also lives in the apartment building. She said firefighters helped her and her family out of the apartment through the windows.
Her children are eight, six and two years old.
“It’s terrifying,” Titus said.
District Chief Pat Fleet said the roof of the building where the fire started was damaged, and the building was not structurally safe to enter.
Displaced residents were kept in two buses to stay warm. At the time the fire broke out, the wind chill was roughly -11 in the area.
“The weather is always challenging in these temperatures, although luckily it’s not -30 C,” Fleet said. “But it’s water and cold — they never go together very well. But the guys did a great job and now it’s just finding hot spots, that kind of thing because it’s a big building, we have to make sure it’s out, so it’ll be a while until we call it out.”
It’s unknown how many people were affected, but the Emergency Support Response Team (ESRT) remained at the scene to assist those who needed help.
Just after 4 a.m., fire crews brought the fire under control. Firefighters are still at the scene working to put out hot spots.
Some residents in the second building that was evacuated were able to get back inside Monday morning to grab some belongings.
Fire Investigators are looking into the cause and damage estimate.