Duplex fire leaves two families without a home

Above and below: Firefighters battle a duplex fire on 99 Avenue Wednesday afternoon. – Lucie Roy Photos

by Morinville News Staff

An afternoon dryer fire on 99 Avenue off of Grandin Drive has left two families without a home and significant damage to a duplex.

Morinville Fire Department was called to the fire at approximately 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.

Fire Chief Brad Boddez said when crews arrived smoke was billowing from the home. Attacking the fire from the front of the house was not possible due to the smoke, so crews gained access to the fire through the rear of the home. As firefighters got to the laundry room, they could see the fire had already burned up into the second floor.

“We went in and did another defensive attack from the patio side,” Boddez explained, adding the department had four attack lines going on the structure fire. “It was a duplex, so structure A was fully involved. We did a recon on Structure B. There was some smoke in Structure B as well as a little bit of fire extension. We had to go in there and knock that down.”

Boddez said there was no damage to houses on either side of the duplex and that the side of the duplex where the fire originated has extensive damage, less damage on the east side of the building.

“There is still some damage as we had to cut some holes in the flooring to get through, but the duplex itself is all still standing,” Boddez said of the other side of the duplex. “It is a great save by our guys. They did another fantastic job.”

Boddez attributes the Department’s I-Am-Responding system for mobilizing a large number of firefighters in a short period of time. Mutual Aid from Legal came in the form of their pumper and rescue trucks and four crew members. Morinville had 27 firefighters on scene as well as their pumper and rescue trucks, and bottle truck and second ladder truck.

The chief confirmed that all residents and animals were evacuated from the building safely.

Morinvillians are already rallying to offer support to the affected families through various social media pages.

Chief Boddez said assessors had already been on the scene as well as fire investigator Ron Cust. No estimate of total damage is available at this time.

as of 6:30 p.m. the Town of Morinville posted on Facebook that Family and Community Support Services had been in contact with one of the affected families.