A man is in the hospital in critical condition after he was pulled out of a basement on fire in Red Deer Sunday morning.
Crews responded to the house fire on Nagel Avenue at 10:08 a.m. Upon arrival, a man was found in the basement of the home.
“He was on the floor. When they got down the stairs into the living room area I believe it was, he was face down on the floor, which is pretty common,” Chief Platoon Sheldon Christensen said. “Sometimes a couple of whiffs of that smoke will knock you right down.”
Red Deer RCMP said the 31-year-old victim was airlifted to a Calgary area hospital where he remains in critical condition.
No one else was injured in the fire, RCMP said.
The next-door neighbour told CTV News the man was already outside when the fire started, but went back inside through the basement window.
“There’s fire coming out the front of the house, there's smoke everywhere,” Shayne McEwen said. “I tried to get them in the house, and the one fella ran back in the house.”
McEwen said around seven people live in the house affected, including three children.
“Those kids have to be terrified right now,” he said. “They don’t know what to think. I think that would be there uncle that went back in the house; I hope he’s okay.”
The cause of the fire is under investigation, RCMP said.
With files from Tyson Fedor
