By Sheldon Spackman

No One Hurt

Oily rags suspected cause of Morrisroe garage fire

Aug 24, 2021 | 10:34 AM

Fortunately no one was hurt following a garage fire in Red Deer’s Morrisroe neighbourhood on Sunday.

Shane Dussault, Assistant Fire Marshal with Red Deer Emergency Services, says crews were called to the residence on McCune Avenue at 8:44 a.m. and found the inside of a double detached garage fully engulfed in flames upon arrival.

“It wasn’t much on the exterior of the garage fortunately and it was noticed by the occupants of the house,” he explains. “The garage was unoccupied.”

He says crews had the fire under control in about half an hour after arriving, but remained on scene checking for hot spots for most of the morning.

“There was one vehicle inside the garage,” says Dussault. “It was destroyed. Damage was probably in the neighbourhood of $100,000.”

Ground School Training

New aviation career pathway elevates opportunities for students

4h ago

4-7 p.m. Wednesday

City to host downtown parking feedback session

6h ago

Albertafirebans.ca

Fire advisories, restrictions, and bans in place for much of central Alberta

7h ago

He credits the garage’s stucco-finishing for partially limiting the spread of the fire from causing more damage to the house itself or other nearby structures.

“There was just a little bit (of damage) to the house,” shares Dussault. “Some cracked windows and some scorch marks.”

Dussault says investigators suspect the cause of the fire to be oily rages from staining.

“But the damage being so extensive, we can’t go 100 per cent on that,” he admits. “It was lucky it got caught at the point it did and nobody was injured.”