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Saskatoon fire officials provided an update Monday on the investigation into the massive fire that tore through the Hampton Village neighbourhood on Friday.
Four homes were destroyed in the blaze, with 20 other properties suffered varying degrees of damage.
Hot and windy weather played a major factor in the fire spreading before it was brought under control within two-and-a-half hours. All residents got out of their homes safety and no injuries were reported.
Rubble from a home destroyed by the fire in Geary Crescent in Saskatoon on May 29, 2026. (Lara Fominoff/650 CKOM)
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Saskatoon Fire Dept deputy chief Yvonne Raymer giving an update at Fire Station 1 today, on the Hampton Village fires that totalled several houses on Friday. @CKOMNews @CJMENews
— Libby Gray (@libby_gray9) June 1, 2026
No word on cause of the fire yet. pic.twitter.com/ADMynWsFF9
Deputy Fire Chief Yvonne Raymer, who oversees Saskatoon’s fire prevention team, told reporters on Monday it will be some time before they know how the blaze started.
She said the fire investigator has asked for “respectful patience.”
A site assessment and a cause and origin scene examination have been completed, but interviews with neighbours and witnesses are still in progress and other factors need to be considered, still, Raymer reported.
“In order to respect our fire investigation process, it’s still under investigation at this time,” Raymer said.
“I will say we will be very factual and thorough before we give a cause and origin determination.”
She said the department wants the investigation to be extremely thorough, in fact, and is not questioning their investigator too much to avoid pressuring them in their work.
“We understand the devastating effects that occurred in this neighbourhood,” she shared.
It took less than six minutes for Saskatoon Fire Department to receive the call around 12:04 p.m. and arrive on scene on Friday afternoon. A total of 32 firefighters were sent to the two-alarm blaze, the city said, along with two aerial units, four engines, a rescue unit and a battalion chief.
The fire was fully involved when crews arrived.
Friday’s fire brought multiple considerations, including alerting all impacted property owners, “ensuring that they didn’t come home to sort of that shock and awe, finding either their house was completely burnt away or that they had sustained some damage.”
The good news, she said, was that nobody identified that they were uninsured and nobody required emergency rehousing. These tasks fell to the fire investigator on the case, as well as looking at fire patterns, fire behaviour and where the fire originated.
“You have such an extreme area to extinguish, and with the wind conditions and the weather conditions that we had that were optimal for fire behaviour, it actually became a challenge as we ended up having flare-ups and hot spots,” Raymer said.
The fire department ended up having to call for an excavator from the City of Saskatoon to drop what was left of the structures into piles of debris on Friday.
Raymer said it helped to contain debris and the scene, though she called it “devastating” for families watching the remains of their homes be collapsed.
“(They) were also extremely structurally compromised, which we couldn’t have our fire investigator go into those areas until it was deemed safe,” she explained.
The fire investigator, having a “pretty good indication” of the areas of interest and the origin site of the fire, used the excavators to help preserve the scene.
Multiple houses caught fire on Geary Crescent in Saskatoon on May 29, 2026. (Lenore Moen/Submitted)
Despite online speculation as to the cause of the fire, Raymer said all building materials in the homes that burned met the minimum requirements of the National Building Code of Canada.
“These structures are not subpar structures,” Raymer said, instead crediting ideal fire conditions for the severity and reach of the blaze.
The 30-30-30 rule — met when temperatures are above 30 C, humidity below 30 per cent and winds above 30 kilometres per hour — meant the conditions were optimal for fires. The wind and heat helped move the fire from structure to structure, Raymer explained.
“As it moved from structure to structure, some of those building materials may, in fact, have already been at their ignition temperature, just based on that radiant heat, flame impingement, and other factors,” she said.
“Firefighters did everything that they could. This isn’t anything that firefighters ran into any challenges on site. It’s just one of those things,” Raymer explained.
She said that this wasn’t the first call where multiple houses were lost, but called it “the most devastating that we’ve seen just based on the number of structures throughout the block.”
Raymer said charges would not be laid in the incident unless it was determined to be arson, with intent behind the cause of the fire.
Fire crews busy throughout the weekend
Fire investigators haven’t yet had a chance to rest, let alone complete the investigation into the Friday Hampton Village fire.
Three other Saskatoon fires kept fire crews busy throughout the weekend.
On May 30, a fire in the 1800 block of East Hill happened in a detached garage, caused accidentally from improper disposal of smoking materiel. That fire caused $300,000 in damage.
In the 600 block of Kinlock Crescent, an accidental fire on May 31 in a legal basement suite caused $75,000 in damage. According to the fire investigator in that case, proper fire separation in that suite helped keep damages minimal and a smoke alarm helped the upstairs occupant safely evacuate.
That fire began because of an e-bike battery that overheated while charging, Raymer shared.
On June 1, fire investigators determined that an incident in the 400 block of Avenue S North was arson.
“The fire investigator identified two intentional locations where fire was lit,” Raymer disclosed.
The fire caused $50,000 in damage and Saskatoon police are now investigating.
— with files from CKOM News
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