UPDATE: Early morning $1-million Birkett Lane fire under investigation

An early Monday morning fire that burned several townhouses being built on Birkett Lane to the ground remains under investigation.

Investigators from the Brantford Fire Department and the Brantford Police Service were at the scene of the blaze – 131 Birkett Lane – throughout Monday. They surveyed the damage and took photographs of the charred remains of the fire that turned the townhomes into empty shells.

The fire is believed to have caused more than $1 million in damage but that was just an estimate, Deputy Fire Chief Dwayne Armstrong said.

Firefighters were called to the blaze at about 12:21 am Monday. Upon arrival, they found several buildings engulfed in flames, said Armstrong.

“Our firefighters did an excellent job of getting it under control,” he said. “They were able to stop it from spreading further.”

Armstrong declined to say if the fire had been deemed suspicious.

“It’s under investigation,” Armstrong said.

The Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal was contacted but declined to send an investigator, Armstrong said.

A section of Birkett Lane at Erie Avenue was blocked to traffic on Monday to help investigators.

No one was injured as a result of the blaze but neighbors describe the heat coming from the fire as intense.

“It was something else,” a man, who lives across the street from the devastation, said. “I couldn’t even come out my side door.

“I couldn’t believe it.”

Equipment on the man’s driveway had to be moved to safety, he said.

Pointing to a garage on his property the man said the heat from the fire damaged a plastic sign on an outside wall of a garage. The garage was well back from the street and well away from the fire.

The man, who declined to provide his name, said the first police officers on the scene said flames from the fire could be seen from across the city.

“The firefighters were here pretty quickly and they got it under control right away,” the man said.

Photos on social media show firefighters battling the blaze from several different angles.

Several townhomes were burned to the ground while a couple others, also under construction, were badly damaged. A single-family home beside the townhomes was also damaged.

A woman who lives in the home was reluctant to speak to the media.

But she said she heard something, woke up and could see the flames through a window of the two-storey home.

“I just got everyone out,” the woman said.

She declined to say how many people live in the house but said no one was hurt.

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