Firefighters in Moncton had a complicated blaze to battle when a parked car caught fire between two homes on Monday.
The car was in the driveway between two homes on Weldon Street, near Victoria Park, when the fire began around 10 a.m.
Moncton deputy fire chief Don McCabe said his department’s strategy was to treat the scene as three different fires — the burning car and the two adjacent homes — with crews assigned to each one.
About 20 firefighters responded to the scene, and their efforts were complicated by the snow blanketing the city.
“(The firefighters were) putting up positive pressure fans, crawling over snowbanks to get the fan up,” McCabe said.
“The snowbanks around us right now are six or seven feet high. The street is about four feet narrower than it would be normally,” he said.
Investigators are working to determine what caused the blaze, which left the residents of two homes looking for safe places to stay.
The Red Cross is helping one family of four, while the other residents have found temporary shelter.
Wingyin Avelakwan was in the back part of her home when she heard a neighbour banging on her door.
“He said, ‘if there's someone inside you better ask them to leave because there's something happening’,” recalled Avelakwan.
“I asked ‘what's that’ and he said there's a car on fire.”
Another neighbour witnessed the fire from across the street.
“The car across the street between the two houses was in flames and the smoke was billowing and I could see that both sides of the houses were on fire,” said Donna Tower.
McCabe said the extent of the fire damage varies between the three affected parts.
“The one on the right, the fire got into the attic through the soffit. The one on the left, we protected it enough that it didn’t get anywhere,” he said.
“The car is probably destroyed.”
With files from CTV Atlantic's Jonathan MacInnis
