People grabbed their pets and some personal belongings while others stood in tears on an inner-city street yesterday as they watched flames and thick black smoke pour from their Calgary condominium complex.
It took more than four hours for firefighters to get the four-alarm blaze under control, but not before the fire had levelled one building under construction and had spread to three others in this residential area, just south of the city's downtown business district.
Elaine Kapach, who ran a publishing business from her home, managed to scoop up pictures of her two daughters and help some other residents before fleeing her burning building.
"I was working on the computer, looked out and saw smoke billowing out of what would have been the building across the street," Ms. Kapach told Canadian Press. "Within five seconds, fire followed. Within [another]matter of seconds, it ran up to the third floor and totally engulfed everything."
The Calgary Fire Department said about 300 residents at the Waterford Place complex, not far from a recreational sports complex and the Calgary Stampede grounds, have been affected. A reception centre to provide food and medical assistance was set up quickly to help them cope with the crisis.
Thirty-three people, the bulk of them firefighters and police officers, suffered minor injuries such as heat exhaustion and smoke inhalation. Three people -- two firefighters and one civilian -- were taken to hospital to be treated for respiratory problems.
The fire, which broke out just after 2 p.m. when many people were at work, began in an unfinished building but leapt to nearby occupied buildings in the posh complex. Units sell for up to half a million dollars. Many residents concerned about their possessions and pets arrived as the afternoon wore on. One man disobeyed police by going back into the complex's garage to retrieve his Jaguar, while a police officer was seen taking out a pet wrapped in a blanket.
Emergency crews moved out hundreds of area residents and closed downtown streets, fearing winds could drive the blaze to other homes and a recreational sports complex. Flames towered above the engulfed buildings, dropping hot charcoal bits on nearby streets.
Crews were expected to remain at the scene mopping up overnight.
A man driving across the prairie told a radio talk show he could see the smoke from 60 kilometres away.
A media outlet suggested a torch used to apply a waterproofing treatment could have triggered the blaze.