An early morning fire in downtown North Bay has affected multiple buildings.
North Bay Fire and Emergency Services have been on the scene since 12:32am.
“Fire crews responded to the reported structure fire on Oak Street,” Fire Chief Jason Whiteley said. “When we arrived, the building was fully involved. We did try to make an interior attack and that’s when we realized the second floor was fully involved so crews backed out for safety and we went defensive.”
“We started to concentrate on keeping it from spreading,” Whiteley continued. “We made a good stop at Vic Fedeli’s building. We have a number of occupancies in this location, lots of construction over the years which makes it difficult. We have been hampered by the extreme cold today. The crews have been out here for over eight hours, the cold weather is starting to take a toll on our equipment and air packs.”
As for injuries, Whiteley says that no one was hurt.
“We were able to evacuate everybody,” he said. “We opened the city bus station early to house people, we have transit buses here for our crews. We have Emergency Medical Service (EMS) on the scene, we have hydro, our city works teams, and mechanics are all on scene assisting.”
The fire is believed to be have originated at the old Sushi Island restaurant, according to Whiteley. As for a cause, he says it is too early to tell.
“We’re not even close to beginning the investigation on it,” Whiteley explained. “We have called the Fire Marshall’s office to come in and assist.”
