Body found in SW home destroyed by fire

The Calgary Fire Department confirms a body has been found in a home destroyed by fire in the 100 Block of Evergreen Way Southwest.

It is believed to be that of a woman police and fire investigators have been searching for since being called to the home Saturday night.  Officials said it appeared that a total of three family members lived there.

Battalion Chief Ernie Molineaux tells 660News, initially, from the information they could gather, the woman who could not be reached was not expected to be home at the time.

Two other family members have been contacted in other countries.

The 9-1-1 call came in just before 11:00 p.m. but Molineaux says, by the time fire crews arrived, the large, two-storey walkout was fully engulfed in flames and all they could do was to try to stop it from spreading.

Neighbouring homes were evacuated while firefighters set up an aerial ladder behind the home to flow a stream of water over the tops of the houses backing onto the property.

Molineaux says high volume fans were used to pressurize the houses on either side of the burning home to keep heat and gases from entering and causing additional exposure fires.

This tactic along with well-placed hose lines and the hard work of the firefighters limited the damage to the adjacent homes to minor exterior heat damage.

There is no word yet on the cause of the fire.