EDMONTON- Fire crews believe a cigarette butt is to blame for a fire that badly damaged two suites in a north Edmonton condominium building.
Fire crews were called around 7:30 a.m., to a building located at 122nd Street and 111th Avenue in the Inglewood neighbourhood.
Fire officials say a roofing crew was heading to work and called 911 after seeing smoke and flames coming from a flower pot on a second-floor balcony.
“The fire quickly spread up the vinyl siding… into the top floor and into the attic space,” said Captain Investigator Shayne Page with Edmonton Fire Rescue Services.
Members of the roofing crew began pounding on doors to get residents out of the building as fire crews arrived on scene.
“There was the sound of a man banging on the building shouting ‘fire, get out! Everyone get out,'” said Barbara Switzer who was still sleeping when the fire broke out.
“I got up, grabbed my dog and my purse and just then all the alarms in the building went off. We came out the back door and there was actually pieces of the roof falling, on fire,” she explained. “There was a lot of shock. A lot of people were still just getting up.”
The building was evacuated as 35 firefighters worked to contain the blaze. The fire damaged at least two suites in the 15-suite building.
“It was a very quick response and they were able to get the fire under control very quickly,” Page added.
One person was taken to hospital with undetermined injuries. Two cats were treated with oxygen on site and returned to their owners.
Investigators believe someone improperly putting their cigarette out in the flower pot started the fire.
“We keep saying ‘don’t butt your cigarettes in the pots,'” Page added.
Page says if it weren’t for the quick thinking of the roofing crew, the fire could have been a lot worse.
“The people would have eventually found out there was a fire, but it would have been going a lot more, it would have progressed a lot more by that time.”
“I gave one of the chiefs a big hug and said ‘now I know why they’re called our heroes.’ They were amazing,” Switzer added.
Fire officials say the fire caused about $1 million damage.
Watch: Raw video of the fire from the Global 1 news helicopter:
Comments