THUNDER BAY – NEWS – Just before 4:00 pm today Thunder Bay Fire Rescue were dispatched to a report of a structure fire in a two-story apartment building on Cumberland Street South. The initial alarm was quickly upgraded to a second alarm after the first arriving truck from Station 3 (located on Water St.) saw heavy smoke coming over the top of the building from the rear of the structure.
Platoon Chief John Kaplanis tells NNL, “Fire crews positioned to the rear portion of the building where they encountered heavy fire coming from the windows of an apartment located on the second floor of the back side of the building”.
Additional TBFR crews were positioned to the front side of the building where a well-coordinated two-pronged fire attack allowed fire fighters to knock the fire down the ‘contents fire’ in less than five minutes from the time of dispatch.
This quick response time, and subsequent actions taken by fire fighters, ultimately prevented fire from spreading to adjacent apartment units on the second floor of the building. Although the fire was contained to the single apartment unit, there was extensive fire damage to the second floor apartment unit that was involved.
There were no injuries to report at the time of the blaze. The apartment that was involved was not occupied at the time of the fire. TBFR investigators have inspected the scene and the cause of the fire is currently listed as “undetermined”. The remaining occupants of the apartment building were eventually permitted back into the building.
A total of six pumpers, an aerial ladder and one command unit responded to this fire.