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The farm house south of Battleford burned down without any damage to the surrounding area. (Submitted photo/Chris Zemlak)
Fire finished

Farm house fire deemed suspicious, building was abandoned

Nov 6, 2020 | 5:19 PM

The house fire that occurred on a property just off of Highway 4, around 10 kilometres south of Battleford, ended without any further incident, but has been deemed suspicious by investigators.

Crews found the abandoned farm house, with no services to it, ablaze before 9 a.m. Friday morning. Upon surveying the situation and preventing the spread to grass surrounding the area, Fire Chief Larry Gabruch said the crew determined it was best to let the fire consume itself and clean the site up afterwards. He said this ultimately reduced time spent on the site, while also saving resources.

“It was far enough advance upon our arrival and the asset value was nill,” he said. “So we made the decision to let that structure continue to burn until the area was clean.”

Battleford Fire and Battlefords RCMP learned later that day the property owner is Red Pheasant Cree Nation, with the farm house located a short way outside the community’s land. The crew was on scene for approximately two hours. There was no determined cause for the fire, so Gabruch said it is suspicious in nature as possible mischief.

“There’s no activated services to the house,” he said. ‘So, it’s either mice playing with matches or it’s intentionally set.”

Battlefords RCMP are investigating the circumstances surrounding the blaze. For the fire department, the main takeaway is that there was no loss of life or injuries.

“We have a clean site now, where we don’t have to worry about what happened today reoccurring,” Gabruch said.

josh.ryan@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JoshRyanSports