EDMONTON – As the search for answers continues in the Rutherford community’s massive blaze on Sunday, more details are emerging about the company behind the condo development consumed by flames.
This isn’t the first large fire the owners of Carlisle Group, which was building the now destroyed Rutherford Landing, have dealt with.
A company representative confirms to Global News that Carlisle Group was formerly known as Pointe of View Developments.
Two different condominium complexes being built by Pointe of View were also ravaged by fires. The first happened in Calgary in April of 2003. Just two months before families were planning to move in, the complex was destroyed in a fire investigators eventually pegged as arson.
Four years later, in September of 2007, Pointe of View’s Copperstone Development in New Westminster, B.C. also went up in flames. The third phase of the condo project burned to the ground just weeks before families were expected to move in. Investigators believe that fire was started by a fuel heater.
The damage of the fire in Edmonton’s Rutherford community is approaching the $20 million mark: $18 million for the buildings under construction, more than $1 million in losses to nearby homes that were damaged, plus additional losses to construction equipment and vehicles. It’s one of the largest residential fires in the city’s history.
Officials are still investigating the cause of the fire and say it is too early to speculate what may have sparked it.
As the investigation continues, the developer points out security measures were in place at the time.
“But as you can appreciate, this is a two-block radius,” says Bob Montgomery, Health and Safety Consultant of the Carlisle Group. “And so, to watch every corner at every moment, of every hour in the middle of the night is pretty difficult.”
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