Fire destroys townhomes
Posted Nov 4, 2012 10:35 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It was a tougher battle than usual for firefighters battling a major blaze in Calgary’s northwest Saturday night.
Fire broke out in a two-storey duplex just after ten o’clock… in the 900 block of 35th Street, in Parkdale.
It proved to be a tougher battle than usual for fire crews.
When crews arrived they discovered the fire involved three duplexes under construction, with the centre one heavily involved.
Battalion Chief Ernie Molineaux tells 660News wind conditions and other challenges made it a tough battle.
“We had some issues with access to the fire because of the way vehicles were parked on the road, etcetera, and a limited water supply because of the distance we had to pump the water,” says Molineaux.
The fire destroyed one duplex and badly damaged another.
A third home sustained a limited amount of damage due to the hard work of firefighters to keep the blaze at bay.
Neighbouring homes were evacuated and bush buggy-style trucks were deployed in the area to watch for flying embers that could’ve started secondary fires.
No one was hurt.
Parkdale resident, Shannon, who was surveying the duplex damage with his family says he’s amazed the fire was pretty much contained to the one home and that fire crews did a good job.
He says they were worried they were all going to go up, so it’s a good thing that they didn’t, but obviously they’re going to have some rebuilding to do.
And Brian Franks from a block away says he rode his bike to the scene to satisfy
his morbid sense of curiosity and even though he knew it was under control, the
“what if” factor still comes into play.
He says, “It’s hard to rationalize, especially for kids. They don’t experience loss and so it’s very scary for them; they didn’t have any part of it and are more concerned the hospital is going to go up in flames.”
