Crews cleaning after grass fire illuminates the downtown sky Thursday evening

Cleanup is underway for the aftermath of a scary scene downtown on Thursday evening after a fire ripped through the River Valley just outside the Marriot.

Flames fill the sky between downtown and the river. The worst of it was just below the patio of the Marriott.

Flames this spectacular prompted some to check out the damage from the fire they had seen online.

“It’s scary to see for sure, especially the people that had to stay in the building. But I mean, I’m glad it didn’t go as bad as it could have,” said Jesse Warholak, works downtown.

The biggest worry for many was how close the fire was to downtown.

“Safety first is a concern, you know, so there’s no safety. What’s really going to happen,” said one Edmontonian CityNews spoke with.

According to an engineer with Edmonton Fire Rescue Services, buildings downtown are built with these events in mind.

“Our buildings downtown are actually quite hardened to something like that. These relatively small grass fires,” explained Cameron Bardas, senior fire protection engineer with EFRS.

The balcony at the Courtyard by Marriott Edmonton Downtown. (Photo Credit: Adam Ziccarelli, CityNews)

Protecting the buildings downtown is a main concern for EFRS. They credit other services for keeping fires out of the River Valley.

“Parks and Road Services is responsible for wildlife management. So having good wildland management techniques, understanding how to manage fuel loads as well as the natural urban interface is very important for the city,” said Bardas.

Investigators searching or the cause and should be able to tell us next week.

“In an urban setting like Edmonton, human activity is obviously one of the causes. But in terms of what actual activity and I don’t know.”