By Sheldon Spackman

Child’s play causes fire leaving Red Deer family homeless

Feb 19, 2019 | 1:24 PM

One person was taken to hospital after a fire that destroyed a mobile home at Northwood Estates in Red Deer early Tuesday morning.

Fire investigator and safety codes officer Andrew Towers of Red Deer Emergency Services (RDES) says the call came in around 2:30 a.m.

“Our crews when they responded, they arrived to heavy fire and smoke coming out of a west bedroom window,” he explains. “I have confirmed that the cause of the fire was child’s fire play (children playing with lighters or matches) that started this. No injuries to firefighters, but one of the occupants of the home was transferred to hospital for smoke inhalation.”

Towers says two adults and two children were inside the home at the time, which he adds was completely destroyed.

“I don’t have a damage estimate at this point in time but with regards to the family, Red Cross did respond to the scene and they have put them up in a hotel, so they are being taken care of,” he points out. “When speaking with our crews, the captain explained that they were able to put out the fire relatively easily once they made entry. Make sure that you keep matches and lighters away from children and also educate them on fire safety and just make them aware of how bad things can get with fire.”

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Towers says working smoke alarms are also critical to ensuring safety.

“With this specific fire, there was no smoke alarm inside the home,” he exclaims. “Having a smoke alarm could have assisted in evacuation and thus eliminated the smoke inhalation injury with one of the occupants.”