Fire destroys part of Canmore seniors complex

About15 people in Canmore need a new place to live after a fire destroyed one wing of a seniors residence early Friday morning.

Fire crews arrived to find flames shooting30 metres into the air.

No one was hurt in the blaze at the Bow River Senior Citizens Lodge in the mountain town west of Calgary.

"I'm pretty emotional about it still because it's hard, you just don't expect this in your neighbourhood," said neighbour Deborah Reeve.

All the residents got out of the building safely after the fire started around 3:30 a.m., said Canmore Fire Chief Todd Sikorsky.

"This is one of our difficult structures that we can respond to, poor mobilityseniors," he said. "We were just so lucky that we were able to account for everybody so fast and remove everybody."

By 7:30 a.m. a reduced crew was dousing the remaining flames. One wing of the complex was destroyed but the main lodge is still intact, Sikorsky said.

Firefighters spent much of the morning trying to prevent the flames from spreading to the rest of the building.

Krystle Hoffman says crews saved her grandmother's home.

"My grandma called us about 4 a.m. this morning and alerted us," she said. "She is just in one of the other apartment buildings and they moved all the residents from the building that was onfire to the other complex."

Some residents were picked up by family members and officials are looking for temporary housing for the rest of them.

"At this point we do not even know if some or all of the wing is salvagable, so it'll be a matter for the structural engineers to decide," said the lodge's Chief Administrative Officer Ian Wilson.

In the meantime, Wilson says he will help find out who had content insurance. Damage is estimatedaround $1.5 million.

Two firefighters were taken to hospital as a precaution for smoke inhalation. A fire crew from Banff helped battle the blaze.

The cause of the fire is still unknown, but if the flames didn't gut the several units affectedthenwater damaged them.