The failure of a heating appliance during this week's bitterly cold weather is to blame for a fire in an Airdrie home on Thursday (January 11) night.

 

Airdrie fire crews responded to reports of a structure fire on Southcreek Place S.E. just after 7:00 pm Thursday night.  When they arrived on scene they found a fire on the main level of a two-story home.  All resident who were home at the time the blaze started had safely evacuated the house.

Deputy Fire Chief Garth Rabel says that a gas fed appliance in an addition that had been built on the home had heated some combustible material around it. 

"The fire had made its way into the floor under the appliance and had made its way into the floor under the appliance and down into the crawlspace which was under where the addition had been built."

Rabel says the appliance was a boiler that was used to heat the room.  

According to the Deputy Chief, crews opened up the floor and extinguished the fire then checked to make sure the fire hadn't extended.  "They used thermal imaging cameras to ensure that the fire, when it was put out, that it was completely extinguished, then they had to open up the floor a little bit more just to vent out any smoke and gasses and ensure the fire was completely out."

Rabel says they've put damage to the room and contents at $15,000 and says no one was injured in the blaze.  

Fire investigators have pinpointed a failure in the heating appliance as the cause of the blaze.  Rabel wants to remind everyone to make sure all heating appliances and furnaces are well maintained.  

"We've had two cold snaps in recent memory so it's really important that prior to cold weather we put emphasis on our heating appliances so that when they're working aggressively that they're going to be reliable and safe."

Five pieces of apparatus and 16 Airdrie firefighters responded to the fire.  

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