Fire destroys Mission home, damages neighbouring homes

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MISSION — Mission Fire Rescue Service says a house fire completely destroyed a Mission residence on Miller Crescent on Wednesday (August 14).

Mission firefighters who were first on scene encountered the house nearly completely engulfed in flames and worked initially to protect the houses on either side.

Miraculously, no injuries were reported to civilians or firefighters.

While both adjoining houses suffered damage to the exterior, neither family was displaced.

MFRS says the house of origin was a complete loss and posed a collapse risk to the adjacent homes. Fire crews say there was also a fire in spaces that firefighters could not safely extinguish, so an excavator was brought in to demolish the structure.

“The cause of the fire was investigated by the fire prevention officer on scene,” said Mission Fire Rescue Service Chief Mark Goddard, “but the extent of the damage coupled with the necessary demolition of the building will make determining a cause very difficult.”

Goddard added that “reports on social media that the cause was natural gas are unsubstantiated and due to the progression and nature of the fire, unlikely.”

MFRS says 21 firefighters, three engines, a ladder and an air truck responded, along with two chief officers and three Emergency Support Services personnel.