Neighbours come to rescue as fire strikes Strathcona apartment
Tenants in a Strathcona apartment building quickly worked to help their neighbours escape after a Wednesday morning blaze that destroyed one unit.
No one was seriously injured in the fire at 85 Avenue near 99 Street, although one woman was sent to hospital as a precaution for smoke inhalation, according to district fire chief Gary Hoekstra.
He said firefighters arrived within four minutes after a call at 10:25 a.m. Other units were damaged by smoke as firefighters quickly put out the blaze and rescued several pets from the building.
But tenants described a dramatic escape even before firefighters arrived.
Neighbours say a man climbed down from his balcony after seeing smoke in the hallway, and ran around the building yelling that there was a fire and for people to leave.
Saje Alaei, another tenant, said the woman who lived in the unit that caught fire banged on her door warning her and her family to get out, and she heard a loud bang. The woman was naked, though Alaei could barely see through the thick smoke, and she grabbed a sheet from over Alaei’s couch to cover herself.
“When she came out I asked her what happened, she said, ‘I was in the bath, I came out, I saw that the wall of my bedroom was full of smoke,’” she told Postmedia Wednesday morning as firefighters assessed the damage inside the building.
Neighbours brought a ladder to her balcony and her family climbed out the window before firefighters arrived, she said.
Thomas Macelroy, who lives in the building, said he heard someone banging and shouting, as the fire alarm went off. He opened the door and saw dark smoke filling the hallway.
“As soon as you exited, the flames were shooting out of the front,” he said.
The fire’s cause is not yet known.