A Saturday-morning blaze has badly damaged a home in Pibroch.
Fire crews were called out to a structure fire shortly after 10 a.m. on Sept. 19 and regional fire chief John Biro said within 45 minutes crews had contained the blaze.
While only parts of the home caught fire, Biro said it’s too early to tell if the structure is salvageable.
“I’ve seen a lot of fires and this was a remarkable save,” Biro said. “Basically the north wing of the structure and even areas near the fire there were still a lot of salvageable personal items.”
A full investigation into the cause of the fire is underway.
“It’s too early to tell yet, we’re just making contact with the insurance company right now,” he said.
Biro said the blaze appears to have started in the living room area and then entered the attic.
“It was an older structure, so it had shavings for insulation, which can be very messy for the fire service.
“What happens is it burns and it kind of weasels down like a mouse would into a hole and you basically have to remove a whole pile of shavings to make sure the fire is out, or it could sit there and smolder and reignite.”
Approximately 20 firefighters from the Westlock rural, Fawcett, Jarvie, and Pickardville departments responded
“For our protocol any structure fire throughout the county is double dispatch, so we have two departments respond for any structure fire,” Biro said. “We had one department down a truck, so we ended up in calling extra support from other departments.
“You can never have too many guys for a structure fire.”
