Crews remain on firewatch after blaze destroys two homes in Monterey Park

It was hard for Allissa Lau not to look choked-up as her family home went up in smoke on Del Ray Road N.E.

The Lau family was at home eating lunch when Allissa noticed frantic neighbours coming up the driveway.

“We were just at home, I was just going to have lunch, there were three neighbours knocking on the door saying ‘there’s a fire, there’s a fire, you have to get out of the house,” she said. “The minute we opened it you could smell the smoke.”

“It’s kinda scary because you hear fire and you don’t think it’ll be the house next to yours,” said Lau. “It was really quick, I managed to back out my car and as we just stood there, it was maybe five minutes.”

According to Calgary Fire officials, the call came in around 1:30 p.m. and it began in the house on the corner of the cul-de-sac and then quickly spread along the fence to their home.

Thick black smoke could be seen across the city, from as far away as Heritage Drive S.E. as fire officials raced to the scene.

Officials immediately called a second alarm due to the amount of smoke that could be seen and the number of phone calls they had received.

Due to a large amount of smoke, crews were unable to search the properties of the two homes which by that point were fully involved.

They since have completed searches and nothing was found.

One man did sustain some minor burns to his hands during the evacuation and he was assessed by EMS.

A total of 15 people from the two homes have now been displaced.

“The first home is completely destroyed, the second home has significant damage and there is some minor damage to a third home next door,” said Public Information Officer Carol Henke with the Calgary Fire Department.

The exact cause is still unclear and Henke says given the large dollar loss they’ll work with Calgary Police to ensure this isn’t suspicious.

“Definitely the wind can shift and push smoke in certain directions, anyone in the immediate vicinity can suffer smoke inhalation and it’s very dangerous.”

It didn’t take long for them to get the blaze under control and they anticipate they’ll be on scene for awhile monitoring hot spots.

Neighbour Marina Yusofi lives across the street and saw the whole thing unfold.

“As soon as I saw the fire, I dropped the phone, ran across the street to help get everyone out,” she said. “The fire department took a really long time to get here, unfortunately if they got here sooner, they might have been able to save the second house.”

She told 660 NEWS, she saw the man in the first house working the garage before hearing an explosion.

“It’s really scary, my heart is still beating, it’s crazy and really unfortunate. I hope it doesn’t happen to anyone cause I know how it feels,” said Yusofi.

Meantime the Lau family says they have a large support network and they’re hoping to rely on family and friends, until they find out next steps from insurance.

Battalion Chief Stu Laird says crews remained on firewatch overnight and are still there keeping an eye on the scene.    An investigator was back Saturday morning searching for clues to try to determine the cause.