THUNDER BAY — The cause of a fire that gutted a two-storey building in the city's east end Monday morning remains undetermined due to the kind of damage the structure sustained.
Thunder Bay Fire Rescue responded with seven pumper trucks and an aerial ladder unit when the blaze was spotted in an unoccupied building in the 500 block of McLaughlin Street at about 2:30 a.m.
Kevin Anderson, captain of fire prevention and investigation, described the fire as a stubborn one during an interview Tuesday.
"The crews arrived and thought they were putting out a contents fire in an apartment, but soon after realized it was in the ceiling and walls. By cutting into various levels of old renovations and multiple layers or roofs, it took them over 12 hours to finally extinguish it. It was in the walls they couldn't get access to, and eventually this caused the roof to collapse."
He said crews had to repeatedly cut their way into a roof section to put out flames, only to find the fire had also spread somewhere else, "so they were kind of chasing it all day long, from 2 a.m. to early afternoon."
Anderson explained that the roof ultimately collapsed into the area where the fire originated, "and it's just not safe to go in there."
He believes the fire likely started sometime before 2 a.m., so by the time someone noticed it, "It had been burning for who knows how long, but probably hours inside the ceiling, and unfortunately that doesn't let us get in there and dig around like we normally would."
No one was injured, and no other buildings in the vicinity were damaged by the fire.
