Fort McMurray evacuees may have lost everything, again, in Edmonton condo fire

Ashley Kelly may have lost her family's furniture and clothes to smoke damage on Monday, for the second time in a month.

She was awakened around 4 a.m. by a neighbour, and looked outside to see flames shooting out from the condo directly across from the one she was renting in south Edmonton.

She grabbed her 11-month-old son, Kole, and her younger brother, and ran outside with her mother.

"We just went through this, so it was kind of like, 'Oh, my god, I can't believe this is happening again,' " Kelly said, who fled the Fort McMurray wildfire on May 3.

The wildfire didn't destroy her trailer in Timberlea, but she said smoke damaged everything inside.

"We lost all our stuff in Fort McMurray," she said. "We came here and got new stuff and now it's gone again. It's hitting pretty hard."

Fire crews were called to The Bays at Summerside, an eight-unit condo building, at around 4 a.m. Monday. 

The owner of one suite reported the fire on his balcony. When firefighters arrived, the fire had burned into the roof.

"The wind definitely was a detriment," district fire chief Dale Dedio said. "The fire wall definitely did its job. It slowed it down enough for our firefighters to be able to do their job properly."

The fire was contained to the one unit, with smoke and water damage to the other seven suites.

Eighteen people were forced to flee the complex. The residents in the suites with minor damage could be back in their homes in a few days, Dedio said.

The building is now in the hands of fire investigators, who are expected to be there for most of the day.

In the meantime, Kelly and her family will stay with relatives until they can move back into their temporary home.