Cigarette butt to blame for SE Calgary condo fire that evacuated dozens

Residents of a southeast Calgary condo complex were rushed from their beds in the middle of the night Friday after the building caught fire.

The Calgary Fire Department says calls to 911 started just after 3 a.m., reporting a fire on the balcony of a condo building on Copperstone Park SE.

When firefighters arrived, they found a four-storey, 72-unit building with flames coming from the second, third, and fourth floor balconies. Occupants had begun evacuating and sprinklers on the balcony had been activated.

Crews fought the blaze from the interior and exterior and quickly brought it under control. CFD says the flames were contained mostly to the outside of the building, while the inside was impacted only by light smoke.

Calgary police helped to evacuate and locate all the building’s residents, who were sheltered in Calgary Transit buses.

In an update Friday afternoon, CFD says the fire was caused by a cigarette butt being discarded into a planter pot on a balcony. Investigators are still looking into where the butt came from and believe it may have come from a higher balcony.

Multiple cigarette butts were found on the ground below, which the CFD say is an indication of “an ongoing issue of improper and unsafe disposal from smokers on upper floors.”

The fire department is urging all residents to discard smoking materials in non-combustible and fire-resistant containers with a lid.