Calgary firefighters worked throughout Monday morning to get control of a multi-home fire in the city’s northeast.
Calgary Fire Department was called to an active fire on Cornerstone Boulevard NE around 3:50 a.m. Monday. Global News has learned that approximately three homes were destroyed with more expected to be affected by the fire damage.
The battalion chief said when firefighters arrived, they noticed one home in the middle of a row of 14 homes had visible flames and smoke. The chief added that’s when the fire spread to the two neighbouring homes.
Three homes in the row had people already moved in, and a total of 15 people were evacuated.
Richard Bailey, a construction worker who made the 911 call, told Global News he noticed smoke as he arrived at his job site in the new community Monday morning. He found a garage engulfed in flames.
The community is so new that Bailey said he had to give the dispatcher directions to the blaze because the exact address couldn’t be found on map systems like Google Maps.
“They had a hard time finding it because the guy said he didn’t have that house on Google. … It’s a new area so he said that house doesn’t exist yet (on GPS),” Bailey said.
More than a dozen emergency crews were at the scene at the time. No injuries have been reported.
Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal said he is committed to working with city planning and emergency services to improve responses to new and developing communities.
“It’s a very unfortunate and troubling event, and thankfully it didn’t result in injury or loss of life,” Dhaliwal said in a statement to Global News.
“It’s unfortunate, but sometimes crisis provides an opportunity to learn, in this case, how we can better support our first responders.”
Firefighters are expected to remain at the scene throughout the morning to watch for hot spots. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
There’s no word on the estimated cost of the damage.
—with files from Gaby Rios and Elissa Carpenter, Global News
More to come…
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