City firefighters responded to the fire at around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday at CKF Inc. on Production Way, said City Fire Chief Rory Thompson. In total, eight engines, several other vehicles, and 52 firefighters were deployed to deal with the fire. The actual fire didn’t do too much damage to the building. “We were fortunate because the sprinkler system really held the fire in check for us,” said Thompson.
“There was a considerable amount of smoke,” he said of the fire near Fraser Highway. The fire was in the back of the large industrial building, and the complexity and size of the fire quickly led the City to go to three alarms. That brought in some Township crews to lend a hand.
However, the building was full of pallets of thousands of cardboard egg cartons. The fire had gotten into the cartons and the pallets. Between the fire and the water, the cartons were destroyed, and the pallets collapsed, leaving piles of debris five to six feet high.
Firefighters had to fight their way through the mess to lay hose lines and get at the last remnants of the fire. Two firefighters were hospitalized, with a City firefighter falling and injuring his shoulder, and a Township firefighter who hurt his knee.
Firefighters brought a lot of bottled water for crews and had to work in shifts, taking breaks to hydrate after fighting the fire on a day when temperatures hit the high 20s. “Pretty tired, that’s for sure,” Thompson said of how the crews felt after the fire was out.
Fire crews didn’t leave the scene until 4 a.m. on Friday. Investigators were looking through the scene Friday to try to determine the cause. City firefighters have had training with what are called “large box” fires, and they recently did a command and control training exercise in concert with the Langley Township firefighters. Township and City firefighters frequently work together on larger fires or cover for one another when crews are very busy.
On Sunday, the Grande Prairie Fire Department (GPFD) responded to reports of a fire at Grande Plaza Condos on 92 Avenue, near Resources Road.
Firefighters found the alarm system indicating a sprinkler activation on the first floor and then discovered a fire in one of the suites. Tony Lutzmann, the platoon chief on duty, said a heat-activated sprinkler in the suite went off and controlled the fire.
“In this case, obviously, there was a large enough fire that there was enough heat to set a sprinkler head off,” he said. The fire was confined to one suite, which sustained smoke and water damage. “Basically, it’s what we call a room and contents fire,” said Lutzmann.
“It didn’t spread beyond the suite of origin and that’s what exactly what a sprinkler system is designed to do, is to catch a fire in its early stages and prevent it spreading into a larger, more serious fire.”
The spontaneous combustion of improperly stored or discarded construction materials is suspected in a fire early today in a commercial space on lower Yates Street, reports the Victoria Fire Department. The fire was suppressed by the room’s sprinkler system, according to the fire department.
The fire will be ruled accidental and the cause stated as undetermined but the spontaneous combustion of stored or discarded materials remains “a probable cause,” said Victoria Fire Lt.-Insp. Brad Sifert.
No one was injured. At 2:14 a.m., Victoria firefighters raced to a fire on the main floor of 524 Yates St., just above Wharf Street. The building, adjacent to Waddington Alley, is commercial on the main floor with condominiums above.
The office space was under renovation, with the new owner scheduled to occupy the space in about a week, according to Battalion Chief Dave Bicknell. The floor was being finished with a highly flammable drying oil and it is likely that the fire was the result of spontaneous combustion from the disposal of these materials, Sifert said.
Fire crews arrived to find smoke in the commercial space. Firefighters traced the blaze to a small smouldering pile of construction materials and waste including discarded window dressing. “I couldn’t find anything but the garbage,” Sifert said.
Sifert interviewed two labourers who had been working on the floor until about 3 p.m. Monday. As part of their normal protocol, the workers said they put the oil-soaked rags in water in pails outside the building. “I can’t rule it out just based on what they’re saying,” Sifert said. “A rag could have been left in there.”
Fire crews used a hose line to completely extinguish the fire, which was contained to a one-metre-square area on the floor.
Reporting on lives and property saved by fire sprinklers
