(Contributed)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

total loss

Fire destroys residence in Mirror

Sep 22, 2022 | 11:32 AM

A house fire in Mirror, about 45 minutes northeast of Red Deer, has left two adults without a home.

The fire broke out at about 4:30 Wednesday afternoon on 46 Street, just east of the school, says Drayton Bussiere, Lacombe County Fire Chief.

No one was hurt, nor was anyone inside the home when the fire started. A cat that was in the house was also retrieved safely.

Unfortunately, says Bussiere, the single-family dwelling is a total write-off, but the residents do have insurance on it, he adds. No other buildings were damaged.

Bussiere says the cause remains under investigation, but it’s believed the fire began on the home’s main level.

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“These kinds of things are always a bit of a shock. The hamlet of Mirror is small, so it doesn’t take long for the whole community to know something’s happened, and it can be scary for residents,” he says. “Thankfully, the damage was limited to the one home and yard, and with proper home insurance, people can bounce back in relatively short order, which will hopefully be the case here.”

The local fire department, Bussiere reminds, was disbanded in 2018, meaning the closest response comes from Alix, about 13 km away.

He says response times are good given the geography.

“There’s always lots of talk about that in larger communities, and they’ll talk about 10-minute response times, which is doable for full-time departments, but the reality is in a place like Mirror, and for the greater Lacombe County area, 10 minutes isn’t usually achievable,” he says

“That said, response times in Mirror are comparable to everywhere else in Lacombe County, and are very good for a paid on-call fire service in a rural area.”

Lacombe County Fire is recruiting new members to join the ranks in Alix, Clive, Bentley and Eckville.

About a dozen firefighters from Alix and Clive were on scene at the house fire in Mirror, until about 8:30 p.m.