Damage is pegged in the $1 million dollar range after two homes went up in flames in Saskatoon.
The call came in at around 4:30 Saturday afternoon.
Everyone was out by the time crews arrived on Salloum Union in the Evergreen neighbourhood. It took them about an hour to get the flames under control.
According to Fire Chief Morgan Hackl, the fires could have been much worse.
“If they would have happened at night, there wouldn’t have been as early detection because it was neighbours who saw the fire,” he said Monday morning on The Brent Loucks Show.
Investigators said the fire started when someone put their cigarette out in a plastic container. The blaze then spread to the second home.
The fire department noted in a media release that this was the second blaze in as many days caused by smoking materials that weren’t disposed of properly.
They urged smokers to use either a metal or ceramic container filled with sand or water to dispose of butts, and to avoid using planters as an ashtray because they contain peat moss which is easily ignited when it dries out.