Antoinette Dick was asleep in her northeast Edmonton home on Saturday morning when a light woke her up just before 4 a.m.

“All of a sudden, my eyes just went bright and I looked out the window and there was a fire,” Dick said.

That fire was from propane heaters at a construction site behind Dick’s house near the Clareview Recreation Centre, around 138 Avenue and 37 Street.

The blaze was so intense, it was shooting flames “40 to 50 feet in the air” when first responders arrived.

“We responded to reports of an explosion,” District Chief Cory Cremer said.

“Unconfirmed whether there was an explosion or not, but we did have some commercial propane heaters on fire.”

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Cremer said about 20 people — one of whom was Dick — were evacuated from nearby homes.

The propane company was also called to help mitigate the fire.

Neighbours are glad the sudden — and bright — wakeup call wasn’t more serious.

“A little scary because it could’ve exploded and that would’ve rocked a few blocks, probably,” said Margaret Belleperche, another person who had to leave their house.

As of Saturday afternoon, there’s no word on a cause or impact on nearby buildings.

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