Firefighters from Airdrie, Crossfield and Rocky View County fought a two-alarm fire June 17 in the northwest community of Woodside, according to Airdrie Fire Chief Kevin Weinberger.
“About 7 o’clock last night, we received a call of a working structure fire,” he said June 18. “Our crews were on scene in four minutes, 56 seconds....
“We had two fully engulfed houses. With the prevailing winds from the north to the southeast it was driving some of the heat and damaged some of the other homes (in the vicinity) as well as on the block to the west.”
Weinberger said fire investigators had narrowed the starting point of the fire to one of two homes but the exact cause of the fire was still under investigation. He said he hoped to have an answer in the next few weeks. Crews had the fire under control in approximately two hours but remained on scene for an additional five hours ensuring there were no flare-ups.
No estimate of the total value of damages was known, according to the fire chief. There were no injuries to any of the homeowners or firefighters.
A total of 26 neighbouring homes were evacuated and utilities, including power and natural gas, were turned off to those homes. A temporary reception centre for evacuees was set up at Genesis Place Recreation Centre. According to Lynda Phelan, team leader of Corporate Communications with the City of Airdrie, none of the evacuees chose to stay at the centre but most did register with the Airdrie and District Victims Assistance Society.
The outpouring of support in the city for those affected by the fire was immediate with a pair of campaigns popping up on the crowdsourcing website, GoFundMe.com, within hours of the fire.
The organizer of one of those campaigns, Lana Haley, said she was prompted to start it up because one of her co-workers and friends lost his home in the fire.
“I knew that he needed help. We’ve been friends and co-workers for a long time. We work at the Airdrie London Drugs together,” she said. “A lot of the other stores were calling and saying, ‘how can we help, we love him and we want to support him,’ so I thought that might be one of the better ways to get the word out.
Haley said she’d like to raise at least $5,000. As of 2:30 p.m. June 21, the campaign had donations totaling $395.
“I know that this community is just outstanding in regards to charity work and just helping out and helping each other when they need it,” she said. “It’s one of those situations where everyone is affected – not just him and his roommate – but it’s affected us, too, because we’re such good friends with him and he’s worked for London Drugs for so long.”
Mayor Peter Brown said he was grateful for the quick actions of the firefighters.
“Our first and primary concern was everyone getting out safely,” he said. “We want to sincerely thank our first responders. They do an amazing job. It was windy last night and this fire could have spread.
“It’s obviously devastating for the families but the one thing about Airdrie is we rally around and support. When there’s been challenges in the past the community comes out tenfold.”
