Mother and son dead after southwest Calgary house fire

Calgary police say an elderly mother and her son are dead after a fire broke out in a bungalow in the community of Southwood on Sunday night.

The Calgary Fire Department was called to the 700 block of Seymour Avenue S.W. just after 5 p.m. by a neighbour who saw smoke coming from a home. 

"I was driving my daughter to the store and there was a bunch of people standing outside the front of the house," said neighbour Lashauna McKay.

"There was smoke coming everywhere. It was coming from the top of the roof."

Diane Boisson, who lives across the street, also saw the smoke and says she immediately alerted her husband. 

"He ran out here and he was one of the first to try to access the house, but it was too hot. He couldn’t even touch the back door here and the glass was starting to crack," she said. 

Firefighters arrived to find smoke but no flames visible.

McKay said crews had to break the door down to get in the home.

"Because they couldn’t get in, everything was locked up," she said.

Tania Alvarado, another neighbour said they watched the whole thing unfold in devastation.

Once inside, crews found a woman in her 90s and a man in his 60s, both unconscious.

Firefighters brought the pair outside and gave them CPR until EMS took over.

"Both patients were received by EMS in critical, life-threatening condition," said Stuart Brideaux, a public education officer with Alberta Health Services EMS.

"We had multiple resources, multiple paramedics that attended in order to do the best we could with these patients."

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

The man was rushed to the nearby Rocky View Hospital where he later died.

Calgary police and multiple neighbours confirm the pair were mother and son.

The fire was quickly brought under control, but the lives lost will continue to be remembered. 

"Very sweet woman and I’m really sad about the loss," Alvarado said. "They’ve been great neighbours for a long time."

"My family moved (here) in 1965 and they were here at the same time, so the kids, we all grew up together in the neighbourhood," Bisson added. "Very, very, very nice people, very quiet."

The cause of the fire is still under investigation but police say it isn’t criminal in nature.

Officials haven’t said whether they had working smoke alarms in their home at the time.

The fire department is reminding all Calgarians to ensure they have working smoke alarms and to prepare and practice their home escape plans.