Dozens forced out of their homes after apartment fire in Grande Prairie

CBC News

· Posted: Jun 09, 2025 3:32 PM EDT | Last Updated: 18 minutes ago

An flat occurrence successful Grande Prairie has forced dozens of people, including respective with mobility issues, retired of their homes. 

Emergency crews responded to the fire at Margaret Edgson Manor soon aft midnight connected Monday. Some residents were helped successful evacuating from the building, according to a quality merchandise from the City of Grande Prairie. 

The 70-unit flat building, located adjacent the city's hospital, provides affordable housing. Sixteen of the units are afloat wheelchair accessible. 

Some residents were taken to the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital to beryllium assessed oregon treated, the metropolis said. 

"I would suggest that 1 of the higher effect scenarios person a multi-storey flat gathering specified arsenic this with … individuals with barriers to mobility," said Mark VanWerkhoven, Grande Prairie's fire chief. 

"But successful information of each of the factors, the weather, the upwind past night, this could person been a overmuch much tragic situation." 

Between 20 and 40 individuals are successful request of impermanent accommodations. The hospital is providing short-term impermanent lodging for some, and arrangements are being made with section hotels for longer-term accommodations, the metropolis said.

The full fig of affected residents is inactive being confirmed, the metropolis said.

In a quality merchandise Monday afternoon, RCMP said they were capable to assistance with the evacuation of implicit 68 residents. Police are reporting that 3 radical received insignificant injuries. 

Lisa Reid has been a nonmigratory of of the flat analyzable for astir 2 years now, and is presently staying astatine a adjacent hotel.

She said galore residents didn't respond to the alarm astatine first, aft the flat had aggregate erstwhile occurrence alarms that turned retired to beryllium false.

"When I went to get retired of the doorway of the building, I looked up and I could spot the flames coming implicit the extortion already. It had lone been 10 minutes," she said.

Many of the residents who relied connected the flat for affordable rents and accessibility were seniors and low-income families. She said this occurrence leaves them successful a susceptible position. 

"Everyone's conscionable displaced, we're conscionable benignant of lost," she said. "We cognize there's not a batch of availability particularly for accessible places successful the city, and overall, rents are truly high." 

With nary steadfast deadline connected erstwhile residents tin return, and what the adjacent steps are, Reid said she's conscionable grateful each of her neighbours are safe. 

"But overall, we're inactive successful reasonably bully spirits. I made my absorption connected helping others that were retired there," she said.

The occurrence has been brought nether power and investigators are moving to find the cause.

Grande Prairie is astir 450 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.