Mother Nature was not on the side of the Calgary Fire Department as crews attempted to contain an early Saturday morning fire that destroyed a garage.
Firefighters responded to a home in the 8000 block of 24 Street Southeast shortly after 5:00 a.m. following reports of a fire.
“We had approximately 36 firefighters in total on six primary pieces of apparatus,” said CFD Battalion Chief Stu Laird. “We came in as a second alarm just to make sure that we had adequate resources on the scene to deal with it. There’s heavy winds in the area.”
Batt. Chief Laird says three structures were impacted by the blaze.
“When crews arrived on scene, they found a fully involved garage. Crews quickly worked to put that out. There was also a shed across the back alley that was on fire and the house had just started to be impacted by the flames.”
Firefighters extinguished the fire and remained on scene to ensure hot spots did not reignite.
Jason Schurman was inside the home when an unknown person alerted him of the garage fire on the property.
“Somebody knocked on the door said the house was on fire,” said Schurman. “There’s four of us that stay there, we all made sure everyone was there together, and out we went. The garage was on fire and the house was just starting to catch.”
Standing on the sidewalk, Schurman said he was uncertain of the extent of the damage to the rental home that contained all of his possessions.
“I don’t know anything about the house itself but the garage is gone,” said Schurman. “It’s a boarding house and everything that I have is in there.”
No injuries have been reported. An investigation into the cause of the fire is underway.
