Geikie Street fire puts tenants out of home

Three Jasperites who lost their home to a blaze last week are staying with friends and depending on assistance from the community.

No one was injured in the fire that drew three engines from the local department and left Geikie Street closed for several hours that night as firefighters battled the flames. The Jasper fire department was called to 307 Geikie St. just before 8 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 19.

Kyna Daley was the only of three tenants who was home when the fire caught. The blaze, caused by radiant heat from the steel box of the fireplace, started in a way that was barely detectable from inside the two-bedroom house, said deputy fire chief Ron Stanko.

“Because the fire started not in the living space, it started in what we call a void space, she wouldn’t even know it was occurring at the time,” Stanko said. Just as a passer-by who saw smoke was knocking on the door to check on occupants, Daley saw an orange glow out the window and left the house.

The whole upper floor was damaged in the fire. “What happened was it went up inside the chimney chase and from there in through the attic,” Stanko said.

“Basically you get a hot piece of steel and you get it close to something combustible like the building construction,” he said. “The metal gets hot, it conducts heat through the metal onto the adjacent wood structure.”

As well, when wood is heated and cooled repeatedly, the ignition temperature of the wood goes down, and Stanko said he believes the fire wasn’t a direct fault of anything except repeated use of the fireplace.

“It can be (a malfunction), or it could be something with that construction has changed, like some of the distances have changed,” he said. “When they mounted that fireplace there was actually cedar shingles running up the side of the chimney chase, which isn’t the best material to be running a chimney adjacent to.”

It’s unclear whether the house will be salvaged at this point. “We have to wait for the adjuster’s position on whether it’s fixable or not,” Stanko said.

Daley said she and her roommates Christine Brown and Martyn Conrad are going through a difficult time. “We’ll be fine though with the help of our families and friends and community,” Daley said. The renters had been living in the house for just under a year.

Daley praised Stanko’s efforts in the situation. “He’s been so helpful, over the top, which seems above and beyond the expectations of his job with us.”