No foul play suspected in Okotoks house fire investigation

The house fire that destroyed two homes in the Sheep River Place area of Okotoks is currently under investigation.

At around 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 4, the Okotoks Fire Department received a call about the fire and were on scene about eight minutes later.

Two houses were fully involved and destroyed, with four neighbouring houses also having taken damage.

No people were injured, though a dog is believed to have perished in the blaze.

According to Okotoks Fire Chief Trevor Brice, two houses on either side of the two destroyed homes took damage to their side panelling and roofs, with two houses to the rear also taking heat damage to their siding.

He says crews were battling the heat and tremendous wind from the start, making the prevention of further spread a difficult task.

"These two that were damaged were actually further apart than the normal building line because it's on the end of a cul de sac in a pie-shaped lot, and quite a distance away from the ones at the rear which were also damaged, which shows just how hot the temperatures were."

Initially, the local fire department had to work with limited personnel before others arrived on the scene.

"We actually had one unit out in High River, so we were working with one unit and one crew. That crew did an amazing job in terms of holding the fire in check while the rest of the resources got here, and our neighbours from High River and Foothills County at Heritage Pointe, and Black Diamond came and supported us once again. We also had a lot of our staff come back in off-duty. This could've been five or six houses if we hadn't have got there. If those two houses at the road had caught, we would've been in real trouble because of difficult access, et cetera. I'm really proud of my staff for what they were able to do with limited numbers," says Brice.

As far as the cause, Brice says they haven't pinned it down just yet, though they have a general idea of what happened.

He says they've ruled out foul play and believed the fire started indoors due to an electrical failure.