Cause determined for Charlottetown fire that displaced 52 residents

The cause of a fire that destroyed a Charlottetown apartment on Wednesday morning has been pinpointed to garden mulch outside the building says Charlottetown Fire Inspector Winston Bryan.

"The fire started on the exterior building at ground level within the area of the mulch," Bryan said.

Bryan said the on-site investigation has been concluded.

He has gathered witness information as well as security footage. Fire patterns show the origin of the fire was the mulch in the back left corner of the building, he said.

Smelled smoke the night before

"We've been hearing people could smell and visually see smoke at approximately the night before around 8:30," he said.

Bryan said footage shows there was smoke in the area at midnight and 1 a.m. and through the early morning on Wednesday.

The fire was called in around 5 a.m. Bryan said people he spoke to who lived in the building could smell the smoke, but just put their windows down because they thought it was a recreational fire like a bonfire.

Police arrived on scene around 5:20 a.m., said Charlottetown's Deputy police Chief Brad MacConnell.

"One of our patrol officers were on routine patrol on Beasley Avenue when he noticed a large black cloud of smoke in the air," he said.

MacConnell said Cpl. Bob Larter heard alarms as he approached the building and alerted other officers.

"He began knocking on doors basically."

MacConnell said a lot of credit goes out to Larter as he potentially saved lives.

"Our officers were carrying residents from the second storey that weren't able to get out themselves."

'The roof did collapse'

Bryan said firefighters entered the building to fight the blaze when they arrived on scene but had to be pulled back.

"The roof did collapse on one of our firefighters," Bryan said, but the firefighter is fine today.

As for the cause of the fire, Bryan said mulch typically needs an ignition point.

"It needs something to ignite the mulch. Mulch will not self-combust," Bryan said.

With the hot weather the Island has been having he said there could have been something introduced to the mulch to ignite it.

Bryan said the fire could have started with a cigarette or even a piece of glass that reflected heat into the mulch.

Though it has been determined the fire started near the mulch in the area, the final report of the fire has not yet been completed, Bryan said.

Fully involved

The fire got into the roof and the building was fully involved when firefighters arrived on the scene, said Deputy Fire Chief Tim Mamye.

The building didn't have sprinklers past the basement parking garage, Mamye said.

The requirement for a sprinkler system in a residential building is based on the number of storeys, the type of construction and the building area.

Generally, a three-storey residential building is not required to have sprinklers unless it exceeds the building-area limits, officials with the city said in an email to CBC.

He said though the fire did start on the exterior of the building it made entry "one way or another" into one of the units.

If those units had sprinklers it would "have immediately had an effect on the fire — the growth and spread of the fire," he said.

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