Edmonton firefighters brought a “very difficult” fire under control Friday on the second floor of a 16-unit Mill Woods condo building.
Eight suites in the building at 78th Street and 26th Avenue were damaged by fire and others suffered smoke and water damage, deputy fire chief Scott MacDonald told reporters.
“It was fully involved when we showed up,” MacDonald said. “The crews did a great job. It’s a hot day, and it was a good save.”
There were no apparent injuries. Most people who live in the building are accounted for but some may have been at work or elsewhere, he said.
The fire was reported at 11:02 a.m., and escalated to a two-alarm blaze seven minutes later, said Jill McKenzie, spokeswoman for Edmonton Fire Rescue Services.
By early afternoon the fire had been brought under control. Firefighters were still on scene checking for hot spots.An investigation could take hours or days, MacDonald said.
The fire was first called in at 11:02 a.m. (Catherine Kim )
Charlie Julian had just left the building when he heard “a big bang” and saw smoke. Flames were coming out of one suite on the building’s upper floor in what looked to him like a possible gas explosion.
Julian parked his car and started kicking on doors to alert other residents.
He said two seniors, a man and his girlfriend, live in the suite where the fire started. He was concerned for them because he hadn’t seen them Friday “and if they were in there, they wouldn’t have a chance to get out, because the place is engulfed right now.”
Julian said he wasn’t scared to kick on doors. “I’m not scared when it comes to other people’s lives. Let’s get ’em, let’s save ’em. To hell with the fire, that’s my motto. If you’re in there, I want you out.”
Charlie Juilian knocked on doors to alert other residents to the fire. (Andrea Huncar/CBC)
Debra Reynar, who lives next door to the building that was burning, said she saw “huge black smoke” and “flames flying at least 50 feet in the air.”
A man and his two sons who live across the street ran to make sure everybody in the building got out, Reynar said. They also pulled out propane tanks “just in case,” she said.
“They probably saved some lives,” she said.
Catherine Kim saw a large plume of black smoke when she was driving her son back from swimming lessons.
“There were some flames initially but now it’s really just smoky and they seem to have gotten the fire under control,” she said.