Huge blaze leaves dozens homeless

EDMONTON - Close to 100 people are without a home after a massive fire ripped through a southside apartment complex. The blaze, which broke out early Thursday afternoon, burned for roughly 15 hours before firefighters were able to get it under control.

Crews arrived at the Heatheridge Estates complex near 111A Street and 18 Avenue just after 2 p.m. on Thursday to find a suite on fire, which they first tried to fight from the inside after evacuating the building.

Mike Evans, who's been living in the complex for the past six years, stood outside watching helplessly as crews battled the blaze.

"I don't even know what I'm going to do. I just want to go up there and get all my things out of there," he said. "Alarms go off a lot in the building, but it's never been the actual thing."

The fire then began to worsen, and just before 5, a mayday was called.

"Basically that's firefighters that were in dire straits and called a mayday just to alert command that they were in distress," said Deputy Fire Chief John Lamb. "Nobody was injured, everybody got out safely and that's when we assumed an exterior attack."

The stubborn flames kept spreading throughout the building over the course of the night, with the cold weather making things more challenging for crews.

"At this temperature it's hard on our crews and we've rotated everybody out. And it's hard on our equipment... we've had a couple of breakdowns on our equipment," Lamb said.

"It affects the hose lines. The face pieces, mobility, slippery conditions, safety," added District Fire Chief Terry Bucharski. “Especially with the ice…once you're fighting the fire, you have to watch how you're walking the ladders or just walking around the fire scene so guys are really quite aware of doing things in a safe manner."

Bucharski said weather wasn’t the only obstacle.

“Also there is power involved too. The initial fire tact crews tried entering and the wires were arching and we called into EPCOR for their response and waited until they arrived and shut the power down so we could progress further."

Luckily, everyone escaped safely, however, more than 90 residents' homes have been destroyed.

“There's nothing worse in a tragedy like this than not having anywhere to go," said a former resident of the complex, Deb Ross. She added that she ran over to the building as soon as she saw the flames, worried about the people she knows who live there, one of whom she will be taking in.

For those who don't have someone they can stay with, there is the Canadian Red Cross and Social Services. The agencies are providing displaced residents with everything from clothing to shelter. Those who require the services are urged to call 311, or visit the reception centre which has been set up at a nearby community centre.

As for the firefighters, their work is not done yet. They will still remain at the scene for some time on Friday, putting out hot spots.

While it's still not known what sparked the blaze, fire officials believe it started in a main floor boiler room. The total damages are estimated to be about $10 millions dollars, $7 million of which is to the building, and the remaining amount is to its contents.

With files from Ross Neitz and Slav Kornik, Global News