A late Friday afternoon fire in the city's southeast claimed one home and threatened neighbouring buildings.
Fire crews responded to a home in the 1300 block of Sunvista Way Southeast shortly after 6:00 p.m. following reports of a fire.
According to neighbours, the home was destroyed by the blaze and firefighters continued their efforts to prevent the fire from spreading to other houses.
'We were able to hold this fire to a single home," explained Calgary Fire Department acting Battalion Chief Randy Mcrae. "The homes on each side are largely damaged."
Trista Ridge was inside her home, two doors down from the site of the fire, when she was jostled by a loud bang.
"I stuck my head out the front door (and) saw the house was on fire," said Ridge. "I started screaming for help to get someone else out here and, if someone was in the house. to get out because i know that there’s a lot of young kids in that house.”
Ridge says she approached the burning building alongside a neighbour but they quickly retreated when two explosions erupted from the house. The Sundance resident saw the front door of the burning home opened by the boys who had been inside.
"They managed to get out," recalled Ridge of the boys' escape. "We had to tell them to go around back to get out because the flames were shooting everywhere."
"The house was gone in a minute."
Mcrae confrims no one was injured in the fire. “There were two teenagers home at the time," said Mcrae. "They were sleeping at the time and awoke to find the fire. They did self-evacuate and they were uninjured.”
CFD members successfully extinguished the blaze but the fire claimed the home. "The house is not savable. It will be torn down."
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
