Apartment fire causes traffic delays in Eastwood area

Drivers are being asked to avoid the area of 82 Street between 118 and 122 Avenues while crews fight a fire at an apartment building.

The Edmonton Police Service is assisting with traffic control and the evacuation of residents in the area.

Firefighters arrived on scene around 3 p.m.

The fire was so intense a total of 12 crews were on scene at the peak of the fire.

The fire is now considered under control, but is not out yet.

Edmonton Fire Rescue Services says the fire started in a unit on the third floor, but they haven't yet determined a cause.

A man who lives in a nearby building said he saw the fire on a balcony start to spread, and he alerted residents in the building.

"I noticed there was a fire that started on the balcony there, just a little small garbage fire. Not even a minute later, it rose, and it rose quick. Once I noticed that, I started screaming from my balcony 'Call 911,' telling people to get the heck out of that building as fast as possible," Allan Knox told CTV News Edmonton.

Knox said he ran inside the building and started knocking on doors to get people out.

"By the time I came down that balcony was so on flames that it was just pouring stuff down and you could feel the heat from two stories down."

No injuries have been reported.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Galen McDougall