The back deck of the house on Sunset Crescent SW, where investigators say the accidental fire began. (Photo Courtesy Kevin Kyle)

By Chris Brown

Wind made firefighters’ job that much harder at Sunday blaze

Apr 17, 2023 | 2:55 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – When the alarm goes off and firefighters are called to duty they sometimes have to battle the elements as well as the fire.

On Sunday night, high winds presented an additional challenge to Medicine Hat firefighters at a house fire in the zero hundred block of Sunset Crescent Southwest.

Platoon chief Joe Greenan says wind fuels fire, likening it to blowing on a campfire to get it going, and the stronger the wind is the greater the chance of spread.

“On a windy day when you’re dealing with a structure fire, it’s always the exposures. The houses beside we call exposures,” he says. “So those are the ones that we would protect we attack the fire but we would set up additional lines to protect exposures whereas we wouldn’t do that if it was a standalone house and say an acreage or somewhere like that.”

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How close the houses are to each other also presents a challenge.

Taking those two factors into account, firefighters chose to attack the fire from above and used both a ladder truck and even sprayed water from the roof of a neighbouring house.

Investigators have determined it was an accidental fire that started on the back deck of the residence.

No one was hurt and two cats were rescued but the home is not livable.