An investigation is underway into the cause of an overnight fire which left one house in ruins and significantly damaged a neighbouring home.
On Saturday, at approximately 12:15 a.m., fire crews responded to the 400 block of Roxboro Rd. Two homes were fully engulfed in flames and additional Calgary Fire Department resources were dispatched to the scene.
The lone resident of the home which was the original source of the fire, a man believed to be in his eighties, left the house under his own power. The man had suffered minor smoke inhalation and was transported to hospital by EMS as a precautionary measure.
The magnitude of the fire prevented crews from performing a primary search of the homes, but the homeowner assured crews that there were no other occupants in either house.
Firefighters focused their efforts on the neighbouring home but additional hazards surfaced.
“We have several problems, a live electrical line behind the source building. We’ve isolated that so no firefighters can encounter it,” says CFD Battalion Chief Larry Fisher. “In order to take care of that immediate danger, we had to shut down the electricity supply to about ten homes.”
Police and firefighters went door to door to advise neighbours of the electricity disruption.
“We also had one other hazard, a ruptured gas line on the front of another home,” says Battalion Chief Fisher.
ATCO Gas crews excavated the gas line in the front yard of another home on Roxboro Rd. and shut off the line.
No one was injured in the fire and electricity was restored prior to 3:00 a.m. The cause of the fire remains unknown.
On Friday, at approximately 9:30 p.m., fire crews and police responded to one of the two homes following reports of a man burning leaves. Officials told the man to stop disposing of the leaves in that manner.
Investigators have not determined if the burning leaves contributed the house fire.
