It burned an entire apartment, but its cause is still under investigation.A fire ripped through a suite on the ground floor of an apartment building on the 300 block of 9th Street in Humboldt on March 21. Emergency crews were called to the scene of what was reported as a structure fire at a two-storey apartment building at 7:43 p.m., reported Humboldt Fire Chief Mike Kwasnica. Kwasnica was on scene about five minutes after the call came in, followed quickly by 16 members of the Humboldt Fire Department, members of the Humboldt and District Ambulance Service and the Humboldt RCMP. Firefighters found the fire in a suite located at the back of the building, and one of the other tenants of the building was trying to douse it in a creative way."We found a guy shovelling snow into the apartment," Kwasnica said.If not for the efforts of this neighbour, the fire might have ripped through the entire building."He used three fire extinguishers, then started shovelling snow inside to put out the fire.... Most of the fire was out when we arrived due to the efforts of the tenant," Kwasnica stated. Everyone was evacuated from all the apartments in the building without injury, RCMP reported.Upon their arrival, firefighters immediately ripped out the ceiling in the apartment, to get into the attic and put out more hot spots. They also made sure the rest of the fire was out.It appeared as though the fire had been burning for quite some time before it was noticed, Kwasnica said. "There was significant damage to the rear suite," he stated. However, other than a smoky smell in the rest of the building, which contains a total of four apartments, damage was contained to that suite. Kwasnica believes it was a smoke detector that alerted the neighbour tenant to the fire. If he had not taken action when he did, "the fire would have done a heck of a lot more damage than it did," he noted. No person was hurt in the blaze, but unfortunately, a pet belonging to the tenants of the suite on fire succumbed to smoke inhalation. The fire originated in the kitchen area of the apartment, but exactly what caused it is still under investigation by the Humboldt RCMP.
