Box blamed for blaze at seniors’ residence
A cardboard box accidentally ignited by a stovetop element caused the fire at a seniors’ residence in west Edmonton Monday, investigators have determined.
The box had been placed on the burner while a resident was moving into the suite, fire officials said.
The three-alarm fire caused about $1.5 million in damage.
One woman died in the fire and four others were sent to hospital. Residents forced from their apartments will be given access to their suites Thursday so they can retrieve medications and other belongings.
Residents of the Canora Gardens who aren’t now staying with family have been put up at a local hotel while receiving assistance from the Canadian Red Cross.
“We do have some suites in our facilities that we know are available and ready, so we’re just determining which tenants are going where,” said Michelle Spring, spokeswoman the Greater Edmonton Foundation, which runs the complex at 10160 151st St.
“We’re trying to determine what locations we’re going to move individuals to, what’s our timeline (and) if people are going to be needing temporary housing.”
Officials do not yet know how long it will take to conduct repairs.
David Gomesh was in town from California for a surprise visit with his mother and sister Tuesday. When he and his family returned to the building, they saw dozens of firefighters battling a blaze and paramedics treating residents outside the five-storey retirement residence. Ten residents were taken to hospital for varying degrees of smoke inhalation, fire rescue said in the release.
The body of an elderly woman who died in the fire was lying near a fence covered by a blanket. The woman, who was in her 70s, was not a resident of the suite where the fire started, the release said.
Thankful that his mother was not home at the time, Gomesh and his family bought water bottles and distributed them to residents outside the 100-suite building. They even found their mother’s 93-year-old friend, Emily, among residents outside.
On Wednesday, Gomesh and his mother, Helen Brijmati, stood outside her ground-floor suite, looking at a charred kitchen sink in a heap of ashes from the apartment above.
Gomesh said plans to drive home to California will likely be postponed until they can get back into the building. Inside the apartment are passports, legal documents and baby clothes. They have no idea if any of it is damaged.
“It is frustrating because the baby’s and the kids’ passports and clothes are in there. They’ve been wearing the same clothes for two days,” Gomesh said.
Investigators were expected to wrap up at the scene on Wednesday afternoon. The foundation will contact those residents who won’t be allowed back in because of damage to their suites.
The woman who died has not yet been identified and the conditions of four other residents taken to hospital is not known.