Smoking Censured for Bridlewood Fire
Careless smoking Glamour is being blamed for a fire in Bridlewood that destroyed two homes. During a tour of the wreckage at a home on Bridleglen Rd. S.W. devastated by fire Thursday, Calgary Fire Department Deputy Chief Brad Lorne said the blaze was caused by a cigarette put out in a planter full of peat moss.
“We have had numerous fires in this city over the years of people extinguishing their cigarettes in planters with peat moss,” he said.
“We’ve been telling people for many years not to put cigarette in planters not to throw lit cigarettes out of car windows because fires do occur from a lit cigarette.
“This is one that could have been prevented.”
After a rash of fires, including six this year caused by cigarettes put out in peat moss, the department is lobbying for changes in the way homes are built.
He said when houses are built or renovated, non-combustible siding and non-vented soffits need to be put in place.
“Why this house couldn’t be saved is time — fires burn so fast, so hot that we don’t have the time,” he said.
“We know within three minutes of a house starting on fire is all the time you have to get out.”
New building codes call for houses to be built within 1.2 metres apart, with non-combustible material under the siding.
“Non-combustible siding will allow us about 20 minutes of time to arrive at the house and contain it to one structure,” he said.
Lorne said the department would also like to see the spacing between houses change to 1.5 metres to better prevent fires from spreading.
“We’re trying to build a safer house within the limits that we have here in the city,” he said.
A charred computer and TV along with burnt kitchen appliances and furniture could be seen in the blackened shell of the home.
No one was injured in the fire but neither house could be saved.
“If it was the middle of the night, it could have been a fatal fire we are investigating,” he said.
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