Afternoon fire destroys two homes, damages third in Sherwood Park

April Hunter was sound asleep Friday when her roommate’s mother pounded on the bedroom door, shouting about a fire next door.

"I thought at first she was joking," Hunter said, as she stared at the melted vinyl siding of the rented Sherwood Park house she and her roommate had recently moved into. "I opened the door and I smelled smoke." Hunter, 18, and her roommate’s mother ran out of the home at 63 Orchid Cres. to see flames engulfing the garage of the house next door at 65 Orchid Cres.

The flames quickly consumed the rest of the house, before spreading to the home at 67 Orchid Cres.

"That’s when the fire trucks showed up. It was scary," Hunter said, as her mother and father stood by.

"At least you got out, and that’s all that counts," Karen Hunter said as she comforted her daughter. "Things can be replaced." In all, six people were in the three homes, said Strathcona County Fire Capt. Darrell Reid. All escaped safely before fire crews arrived.

The homes were in the Clarkdale Meadows neighbourhood, in Sherwood Park’s northeast.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but it is believed to have started in the garage of the middle home, Reid said.

Firefighters were called at 4:32 p.m., and arrived six minutes later, he said.

Bystanders Roman Kondra and his friend, Scott Kinash, both 16, said the fire burned fast and sent flames shooting high into the sky.

"I phoned my friends who live about 20 kilometres outside Sherwood Park, and they said they could see it from where they live," Kondra said.

"You could hear explosions coming from the garage," Kinash said.

Randy Babcock, who saw the fire from his home a block away, said the flames were at least two storeys high at one point.

Janine Landry, who lives across the street, said she had just stepped out of the shower to hear her dogs barking like mad.

She went outside and saw her neighbours’ homes burning.

"It hurts my heart to see this happen," she said. "But we are a really good community, and we are going to help them out." Reid said 23 firefighters battled the blaze, with help from an aerial truck. The fire was mostly out by 6:30 p.m., with firefighters still dousing hot spots.

Reid said one reason the fire spread so quickly is because the neighbourhood is a newer development where vinyl-sided homes were built close together.

"This is a case of that type of event where a fire spreads very quickly from one home to the neighbouring home," he said.

A damage estimate has not been released.

Source - Edmonton Journal - http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/story.html?id=55d6ccb2-3b37-472f-9cd4-b239462e688f