The cause of a Christmas Day fire at a Southpointe Common store remains under investigation.
Red Deer Emergency Services was alerted in the late morning by a security company that an alarm had been triggered at the Bell store in the shopping complex in south Red Deer.
“When our folks got there they found a fire in the building, upgraded (the call) to a structure fire and were able to contain it,” said Red Deer Emergency Services assistant deputy chief Matt White.
“In this case, the alarm did exactly what it was supposed to do.”
More than two dozen city and Red Deer County firefighters responded to the fire, which was contained to the Bell store, said White.
“Our crews did a really good job. It was quite a stubborn building to get access to and to find that fire in. Although, it’s not a big store, the security features made it difficult for our folks to get in and just the way that building was constructed,” he said.
“At one point, we were concerned it was up in the roof, but our crews did a really good job of accessing it and containing it to the Bell store. There is a little bit of smoke and water damage to the adjacent occupants.
“But for the most part, it was contained to the Bell store.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
“Our fire investigator was in yesterday and has started the investigation,” he said. “He’s still working on determining cause and origin and we should have that, hopefully, this week.”
A damage estimate has also not yet been determined.
The store and neighbouring businesses were closed for the holiday at the time of the fire. There were no injuries.