Airdrie Fire have released additional details on yesterday's (October 11) early morning fire on Flett Drive.

Deputy Chief Garth Rabel said the home that caught fire was unoccupied at the time of the blaze. Firefighters did evacuate eight residents from three nearby homes while they fought the fire, and one firefighter rescued a cat from one of the adjacent homes and returned it to its family.

Rabel said two firefighters did sustain minor injuries while battling the blaze.

"We did have a sprain to a hand injury to one on one of our firefighters. The fire ground was quite busy, of course, and he just took a fall, tried to brace his fall and unfortunately hurt his wrist and his hand. And then of course we have the fire officer that did find the cat in the adjacent home, the exposed home, and rescued the cat and brought it back out to the homeowners. Unfortunately, the cat paid the officer back for his good work by biting him and giving him a quick claw on the hand."

Rabel said the fire was quite aggressive, resulting in substantial damage.

"One of the homes, the home of origin, is unfortunately a complete loss and will need to be torn down and rebuilt. And there was a home directly adjacent to it on the east exposure that suffered significant damage as well."

Right now, the Fire Department have not determined the cause of the fire or the cost of the damage. Rabel said the Fire Prevention Bureau will remain on scene today to perform a meticulous investigation.

"Our fire prevention team is diligently working on the investigation now. We have secured the area, fenced the area off, put security on the area so that our fire prevention team will be spending the majority of today going through the rubble, trying to determine probable cause and then whatever preliminary estimates we could have for contents and structure."

 

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