Fire crews tackled a house fire on Cousins Drive in North Battleford on Feb. 23. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)
North Battleford fire

No injuries reported in North Battleford house fire

Feb 25, 2022 | 5:54 PM

There were no injuries reported in the house fire on Cousins Drive between 16th and 17th Avenues in North Battleford this week.

Deputy fire chief Dave Pratt said fortunately there was no one home at the time of the fire, the cause of which is still under investigation.

The fire department responded to the blaze after getting a call from a passerby Wednesday at 3:15 p.m.

Firefighters spent several hours putting out the fire that appeared to have started in the back of the basement.

When they arrived the house was completely filled with smoke.

(Twitter/Angela Brown)

Pratt said the team deemed it best to attack the blaze from the outside.

“Basically it had burned from the basement into the first level,” he said. “So we didn’t put anybody in the structure. We didn’t feel it was safe.”

Firefighters endured frigid temperatures of -20 Celsius when they tackled the fire. They were able to use the fire department’s mobile rehab unit to warm up periodically during the evening.

“We had about 18 staff working at all times, and they would just rotate,” Pratt said.

The crews were able to contain the fire to within the structure.

Pratt said there was so much damage to the structure that it ended up having to be removed for safety reasons.

“Because of the volume of the fire and the instability of the building, the fire chief ordered an emergency demolition order yesterday [Thursday],” he said.

Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow

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