22 residents displaced by Jasper Place apartment fire

A man is thanking Edmonton firefighters for helping him salvage important legal documents from his burned out home. CTV News Edmonton's Nahreman Issa reports.

Twenty-two residents have been displaced after fire broke out at an apartment building in the Jasper Place neighbourhood on Wednesday evening.

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Smoke was reported at 10131 152 St. just after 5 p.m.

“We could smell smoke. There was no fire in any suites,” district fire chief Darren Stolk later told CTV News Edmonton at the scene.

Finally, they figured out the fire was in the walls between the second and third floors and spent 1.5 hours “chasing it” before switching to a defensive attack.

“Every time we’d open up something, there’d be more smoke and fire. We had major crews, like five recons in five different spots, trying to catch up to and never could catch up to it. So it just got away into the floors and into the walls,” Stolk said.

When he spoke to reporters, the fire had reached the attic.

“It’ll be a long, drawn-out one. The basement has already four feet of water in it, so it’s going to be a lot of water damage,” Stolk said.

The entire building was evacuated and firefighters rescued roughly a dozen pets. No injuries were reported.

A total of 14 firetrucks were called to the scene.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Brandon Lynch