Crews respond to garage fire Sunday
Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services responded to a large garage fire Sunday afternoon on 14 Avenue South. The fire was in a densely packed neighbourhood, and required firefighters from three stations (Stations 3, 4 and 1) as well as two fire/medic units to contain and eventually put out. Firefighters arrived on the scene just after 3 p.m., and were initially worried the fire would spread to surrounding structures, said Lethbridge Fire Capt. Paul Wasylewich.
“When we arrived, the fire was encroaching on the structures beside it, the house and the garage to the east,” he said.
“The back of the house sustained some significant damage; so that is where we started. We knocked it down there so we could get into the house and the neighbour’s house, but we did require an elevated master stream to put the fire out because of the heat.
“There was some volatile product in the garage so we didn’t want to go into the structure. We used a defensive mode (contain) strategy to protect the house and other exposures first, and then we set up the master stream and knocked down the garage.”
The fire took about 45 minutes to put out, said Wasylewich.
“We estimate there is probably $100,000 worth of damage, but no injuries,” he stressed. “The cause remains undetermined at this time.”
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