It's been a little over a week since a local Cochrane family lost their home and belongings to a tragic house fire.

Cochrane Fire Services were quick to arrive at the residence along Highway 22 in Cochrane on November 11th, however the garage was already fully

engulfed and the fire was quickly spreading to the rest of the home. 

Fire Inspector Jeff Avery says they have since determined the cause of the fire.

"Once we were all finished and had interviewed the tenants of the property, we feel that it was a heat lamp that caused the fire. There were a few frozen water lines and they were trying to thaw them out and unfortunately it caused a fire. They were very cooperative and a really great family living there. It's just a really unfortunate accident."

Avery says it's important to use heat lamps and space heaters with extreme caution.

"Everybody uses heat lamps and space heaters for something, you just have to use extreme caution. They could have used it a hundred times without any incidents, but just that one time and one unfortunate accident - maybe a pet knocked it down or someone accidently knocked it over and unfortunately that was the cause of the house fire."

Sadly the fire claimed the life of one of the family dogs.The rest of the family was able to escape the fire and are currently staying at a local motel while getting back on their feet.