Photo: Katherine Watson Start of the Water's Edge fire as it climbed up side of building.

The man who started a catastrophic blaze that destroyed an almost-finished condo building under construction in Kelowna says he did everything he could to stop the flames.

The worker, who was applying torch-on decking material on the pool deck of the Water's Edge II condos on Saturday, didn't want to reveal his name, but called Castanet as much to get it off his chest as to defend his actions.

"I did everything I could to prevent it from happening," he said.

The contractor said he was working on the second-floor pool deck and was capping off a final layer of material using a torch-on finish.

He said he cut the tar paper on the unfinished wall beside the deck away to a level he felt would be safe, and was concentrating on the work at his feet when the radiant heat of the torch ignited the dry paper.

"I looked up, and it was already at the height of my head," he said.

It shot up the side of the structure within moments.

"I tried to rip it off the wall with my hands, but it shot up in a matter of seconds," he said.

Despite some claims to the contrary, he says he did have a fire extinguisher on site, but says the fire spread too quickly for it to have any affect.

He called it a freak accident, and said he followed all the normal procedures for that type of work.

"I yelled the neighbours to call 911 ... There was no stopping it."

In less than an hour, the six-storey structure was a pile of flaming debris.

Choking up as he recalled the massive blaze, he said he's "just happy to be alive."

The man suffered burns to his hands in trying to tear the burning paper off the wall, and said: "Right now, I'm hurting, but I'm just glad that nobody got killed."

"I want people to know that I really tried everything ... I don't want them to think that it was negligence," he said.