Two people suffered smoke inhalation but numerous pet dogs were rescued when fire destroyed their trailer home and another house nearby early on Thursday.
Lacombe Fire Department got the call about 4:30 a.m. and arrived at the property about three km north of the city to find both buildings burning.
“By the time we got there it was fully involved,” said Lacombe deputy fire chief Eric Graham.
“It was basically a defensive operation.”
A man and a woman who lived in the trailer home escaped but were taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. The adjacent farmhouse was not occupied.
Both homes were completely destroyed.
Firefighters managed to round up four or five small dogs which were in a fenced-off area outside and had hidden from the fire. The dogs were turned over to a relative of the trailer home residents to be cared for.
Four horses in a pen were also kept safe from the flames.
More than two dozen volunteer firefighters from Lacombe and Bentley fought the fire, which took hours to put out.
“From start to finish, it took us about eight hours before we had our tracks back in service (at the station),” he said.
Graham said the cause of the fire is still under investigation. A damage estimate has not been determined and the fire department was still checking to see if the buildings were insured.