WESTLOCK – An early-morning fire that destroyed a three-storey four-plex in Westlock is now under investigation.
Town of Westlock firefighters were called to the scene of the blaze at 9819 – 100th Street around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, June 19 and found the front of structure engulfed in flames — the building contained two basement suites and a pair of above-ground units. Two occupants of the building were already out when firefighters arrived and were unharmed, while the only other person living in the building was not at home at the time of the fire.
“We established a defensive attack right off the bat from Highway 18 and followed it up with interior suppression operations,” said town fire chief Stuart Koflick at the scene just after 9 a.m. while a fire investigator and his dog combed the wreckage.
“The building is still standing, but looking at the damage I don’t think it can be saved. I’m not a structural engineer, but I would say pretty much,” he added when asked if the building is a total loss.
Five Westlock County firefighters, as well as a county fire truck, joined the 11-member complement from the town and were able to get the fire under control in about 45 minutes. In addition to the four-plex being gutted, the siding on the home to the west was also scorched.
“We’re in the preliminary part of the investigation so we’re trying to gather all the facts,” said the chief when asked for specific details as to where and how the fire started. “There’s more damage to exterior on the front than there is to the exterior of the back, so our area of origin is in the front.”
Koflick noted that Tower 1, the town’s new $1.3 million 2020 Rosenbauer Cobra Aerial Platform truck that entered service April 1, also played a huge role in suppressing the fire quickly and safely. Of note, this is the third major fire in Westlock this year following the Jan. 31 inferno that destroyed the Commerce Building and the May 23 blaze that gutted The Flower Shoppe, Essential Massage (which shared the space with The Flower Shoppe) and Fringes Hair, which shared its northern wall with the two. Neither were deemed suspicious.
“We arrived on scene first with Engine 2, which has a deck gun which we used to knock down the front side. Tower 1 responded shortly thereafter and we did use the tower and the master stream up there. The truck worked fabulously,” said Koflick.
“It did its job perfectly. There would have been more damage if we didn’t have this piece of equipment.”
