Southeast fire destroys home under construction, damages others

Flames broke out at a southeast residential construction site early Tuesday morning.

Firefighters were called to the Laurel neighbourhood around 6 a.m. and arrived to find an unfinished house engulfed in fire, said acting fire district chief Robert Murray.

Shortly after 7 a.m., all that remained was a pile of smoking rubble at 18 Street and 18 Avenue.

A house under construction in the Laurel neighbourhood was destroyed in a fire the morning of Oct. 11, 2022. The blaze also damaged two other construction projects and three neighbouring occupied homes.

While no one was living at the address, several houses to the north were evacuated because the wind was carrying the flames in that direction.

Mehakdeep Singh woke up to someone banging on his window.

"We were sleeping. I actually thought somebody trying to break in the house," he recalled.

"We wake up and we see the houses back there were completely burnt."

Mahakdeep Singh's home in Edmonton's Laurel neighbourhood was one of three occupied homes that saw its siding melted or windows cracked by a neighbouring fire on Oct. 11, 2022.

His fence was destroyed, as were the windows and siding on the back of his house.

"Our glass started shattering and we got really, really scared," said Singh's wife, Sandeep Brar.

Brar said the fire happened fast, adding that their neighbor said everything seemed normal when he left for work that morning.

"When he left at 5:35, he said there was absolutely nothing," she said. "So this happened within just ten to fifteen minutes." 

Murray said several other homes also saw their windows cracked and siding melted.

Two other homes under construction were also damaged. 

Builder Iqval Chechal, owner of Alpha Custom Homes, told CTV News Edmonton he believes the fire will be a $500,000 loss.