By James Wood

Fire leaves Tweed House with severe damage

Sep 19, 2017 | 10:18 AM

MEDICINE HAT, ALTA- An older home in the Gas City has been severely scorched by an early-morning fire on Tuesday.

According to Platoon Chief Dale Lerner with the Medicine Hat Fire Department, firefighters got the call around 5 a.m., and were dispatched to the Tweed House, near the intersection of 1 Street Southeast and Division Avenue.

The house was built in 1898, and was previously gutted by fire in January of 1984. According to records held in the Medicine Hat Archives, the last time the structure was worked on was back in 2007.

While a clear cause for the fire remains unknown, Lerner said relief firefighters had to be called in due to the difficulty of the flames to put down.

After hitting the flames on the exterior of the building, crews headed inside to knock down any possible fire in the interior. Lerner said the building had been bare inside, due to recent renovation work, and firefighters found little smoke on both the first and second floors.

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No flames were found inside, but Lerner indicated heat was being concentrated in the attic and roof spaces of the structure.

Eventually, the majority of the structure was saved.

Lerner said the fire had burnt through walls on the west side of the building, as well as a roof on the same end. A fire investigator was on scene by 7:45 a.m., after all the flames had been put out.

According to Lerner, the investigator will be looking to find out when renovation work had last been done on the building, which was vacant at the time of the fire.

Police temporarily blocked the intersection during the incident, and re-opened the area after 8:00 a.m.