A home was destroyed by fire Saturday morning in northwestern Winnipeg

The residents of the house on Roy Avenue escaped without injury, fire officials said, but the stubborn blaze forced firefighters to tear big pieces of the home apart to get at hotspots.

The flames weren't the only danger faced by emergency crews. With temperatures reaching 25 C, heat exhaustion was also a threat, but some new equipment reduced that danger. Firefighters were rotated out of the front line and into special chairs set up nearby, where they sat with their forearms immersed in room-temperature water.

Fire Chief Bill Clark said the new procedure is partially based on research on the effects of extreme temperatures conducted at the University of Manitoba. "We get [firefighters] in the shade, we sit them down in these chairs, fill the slots up with water [and] they are good to go," Clark said.

"Immersing your forearm in just room-temperature water … is a more effective radiator than pouring water on yourself."

The Winnipeg department is always looking to make the job safer, Clark said. "Once we know that we have safety to the occupants, we always ensure that we have safety for our firefighting staff."

The cause of the fire was under investigation.

With files from Sean Kavanagh