Destroyed St. James building smoulders 18 hours after firefighters attack flames

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This article was published 06/02/2018 (2941 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A commercial-building blaze in St. James stubbornly continued to smoulder Tuesday, some 18 hours after dozens of firefighters arrived on the scene.

Smoke billowed from the building in the 500 block of Roseberry Street between Ellice and St. Matthews avenues late in the morning, clouding the air west of Polo Park Shopping Centre.

Twenty crews — more than 80 firefighters — responded shortly after 3 p.m. Monday, when it was first reported. They managed to prevent the flames from spreading to nearby buildings.

There were no injuries to firefighters or civilians, platoon chief Bruce Melnyk said Tuesday. The building had been evacuated by the time emergency crews arrived.

Monday’s bitter cold made the battle more difficult.

“We know our bodies work slower when it’s cold, plus you add the ice so you have to walk slower, move slower,” he said, adding firefighters were further hampered by mist from hoses quickly freezing their gear.

Five businesses were inside, including a furniture upholstery company. The fire is believed to have started in the centre of the two-storey building, where a small print shop was leasing space.

Traffic was expected to stay blocked on Roseberry between Ellice and St. Matthews most of the day Tuesday.

Melnyk said the blaze may have started well before 3 p.m. Monday because it was “fully involved” by the time fire crews arrived.

The fire was already “self-ventilating,” fire-speak for a fire that has burst through the windows to get additional oxygen, he said; the fire burns the wood or PVC frame, windows fall out, and the flames burst through the opening to gulp in air.

All that was left of the burning building was its frame sheathed in ice. Icicles hung from the building eaves and along hydro lines.

Power on the west side of the 500 block of Roseberry was turned off by Manitoba Hydro on Monday and was expected to stay off much of Tuesday to protect fire crews using aerial trucks. Half Pints Brewery was among the businesses affected by the outage.

Bee Maid Honey, on the east side, did not lose power.

It’s difficult to get at the deep-seated areas of the fire from the outside, district fire chief Dick Vlaming said.

“It’s a safety concern. We’re not going into that building,” he said, adding what was left of the structure would have to be torn apart to get at any remaining hot spots.

The cause has not yet been determined.

Melnyk said the biggest challenge for fire crews was when the nearest hydrant right in front of the burning building stopped working. Instead, the hydrant gushed like a geyser and flooded the street in front with a small lake. The hydrant problem was a mechanical failure and “not an unusual thing,” he said.

That meant pulling out hoses and connecting to a hydrant further away.

Plumes of coloured smoke raised some concern that dangerous chemicals were stored inside, but Melnyk said that wasn’t the case.

“We were getting a lot of browns coming out of there, which is just an indication of very old, dense wood burning at a very hot temperature,” he said.

Fire officials expected personnel would continue to pour water on the building for much of Tuesday.