A home under construction in Brantford was deemed a total loss after flames ripped through the structure on Friday morning. The Brantford Fire Department was called to the Arthur Street property around 1:22 a.m. “We showed up on site for a building that was under construction to find it fully involved,” Deputy Fire Chief Dwayne Armstrong said. Patrick King, who lives nearby, noticed the lights from the emergency responders when he woke up in the middle of the night. He said it was another neighbour that called in the fire. “He was coming home from work and he saw flames kicking out of the building,” King told CTV News. Armstrong said crews worked hard to contain the flames. “It was a defensive fight from the get-go, but they managed to keep it to the building itself and not let it spread to the adjacent structures, which was fantastic.” One nearby residence did have some smoke damage. Several neighbours were also asked to evacuate their homes temporarily while crews fought the flames. Firefighters decided the home was a complete loss by 4:35 a.m. There is no word yet on what caused the fire, or if it is considered suspicious. Crews spent part of the morning pumping water out the basement so the investigation into what caused the fire could begin. “We’re going to conduct the fire investigation following that,” Armstrong said. “We just have to make the building safer.” King, meantime, was glad no one was living on the property. “They were just building it. They didn’t have the drywall or anything in,” he said. “That made the fire go a wee bit faster because they didn’t have anything to suppress it.”
