THUNDER BAY — Yet another fire appears to have been deliberately set at the former Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital.
Thunder Bay Police have secured the scene, and an investigation is underway into a fire that was discovered early Wednesday morning.
The latest incident has prompted Thunder Bay Fire Rescue to comment on the challenge to keep the huge, vacant building secure.
Crews were called out just after 3 a.m. to the property in the 500 block of Algoma St. N.
Firefighters found smoke emanating from the front of the structure, and initiated a second alarm to bring additional resources to the scene.
Crews used extrication tools to access the building by cutting away security screens over a ground-floor window and breaking the glass.
They then applied water through the window to bring the fire under control, and breached a door to ventilate the structure.
Firefighters searched the building but found no one inside.
A TBFR news release about the incident did not describe the nature of any damage to the interior of the vacant building.
But the fire department said "due to the difficulty in securing the structure, it has become difficult to prevent access to the building and thereby prevent fires."
Firefighters were also called to extinguish fires at the LPH on three previous occasions this year, and there have been numerous other calls since its closure.
The 500,000 square-foot building was closed in 2018 and listed as surplus by Infrastructure Ontario, but the ministry stated in May that it is still working to identify potential alternate uses for the site.
