A mother and daughter say they woke up to flames encroaching on their third-floor apartment near Commonwealth Stadium early Friday morning.
Both Felicia and Summers Keshane woke around 3 a.m. and were struggling to fall back asleep.
“It smelled really bad. Like burning plastic … I kept looking out and didn’t see nothing,” Summers recalled later during an interview with CTV News Edmonton from the street outside their complex at 11029 84 St. NW.
“I didn’t think nothing of it. I was like, ‘There’s always weird smells.’ So I was trying to go back to bed,” her mom said.
But Summers kept looking out her window. Eventually, she saw smoke and then flames.
“There was fire and little bits shooting out and stuff and glass was breaking. And it was going up to our apartment,” she said.
By the time all three in their unit got out, flames that looked like they were coming from the suite below had consumed their balcony.
“Thank God we’re alive because I could have went back to bed,” Felicia said. ”It could have went any other way. I could have went to stay at my friends and she could have been here alone. I’m just glad I woke up when I did.”
Edmonton Fire Rescue Services confirmed the fire appears to have originated from a second-floor suite in the three-storey walk up.
The blaze was reported around 3:10 a.m. and declared out at 6:06 a.m.,
A total of 28 people were displaced; none reported any injuries.
The Keshanes have lived in the apartment since they moved to Edmonton almost seven years ago.
Her voice cracking, Felicia said, “This was our first place and we just stayed here. It was home for us. So now we got to find a new one, I guess.”
Police were called to the scene as well as firefighters.
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Evan Klippenstein