Fire destroys Swift Current house

Members of the Swift Current Fire Department battled hot and windy conditions when responding to a two story structure fire in the zero block of 5th Ave. N.E. on Saturday afternoon.

Fire crews arrived at approximately 1:50 p.m. and they found the building fully engaged, with smoke and flames from both the north and east side of the building.

“For us, that building, fairly early in that fire, was structurally lost. So for us then it became really important to continue to protect the neighbouring structures, the yards, to keep it from spreading,” Deputy Fire Chief - Prevention Pete L’heureux said during an interview on Tuesday afternoon.

L’heureux noted their full response involved approximately 16 fire fighters, and six responding vehicles which included their support and command staff vehicles.

“The fire had been burning for a little while before it was reported or noticed, because the structure wasn’t occupied. So it had some time to burn and extend into other areas of the house, in this case which included moving to the second floor.”

“For us lots of times a small fire is caught before it expands. A pot on the stove it starts to burn up the cupboards a little bit, or it maybe burns into a bedroom or something along that line,” he explained. “But this one was obviously more than that. It became room and content fire, it extended from floor to floor. At some point, within a short amount of time it was burning on two different floors.”

He said fire fighting in the over 30 degree Celsius conditions were also a factor in the incident.

“It was a hot, windy day, so staffing and safety wise was a concern. It was really hot,” he admitted. “It made for a challenge in keeping staff safe, avoiding heat exhaustion and heat stroke and things like that. It was a tough afternoon.”