Residents evacuated from King Art apartments after last night’s fire

Residents of the King Art apartment buildings in Bonnyville will wait to find out when they can return to their homes after a fire in the building yesterday night.

Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority responded to the fire call at 6pm last night at 3902 50th Ave and worked to extinguish the fire and clear up the smoke damage.

Crews worked for five hours on scene.

Building occupants were evacuated when a resident detected a fire and called emergency services.

Regional Fire Chief Jay Melvin said clearing the smoke was a “challenge.”

“The biggest hazard was smoke damage that now moved through the structure which caused extensive time to get fresh air and to try to get some of this smoke out of the building,” he said.

An investigation into the fire is pending, but Melvin said there were no indicators of intent.

Melvin said it doesn’t appear there’s any structural damage to nearby apartment rooms, but residents may have to wait to return home.

“We need to ensure that it’s safe for them to go back in or so there’s no, so there are no further incidents. And when you’re in those type of infrastructure, it’s difficult for emergency services, but also now for the managing company, whoever owns the building, to ensure that it’s physically safe to get back in the building,” said Melvin.

The building has been turned over to apartment managing company to determine how to proceed, said Melvin.