A warehouse on Smith Street was destroyed by fire on the evening of Jun. 21.
A call came in to Yorkton Fire Protective Services at approximately 8:00 p.m., said Fire Chief Trevor Morrissey. The fire had started in the north end of the building. The fire was already fully involved in the interior at the building’s north end.
“Because it was a warehouse, and a storage facility, it was fairly secure all around. It wasn’t as easy as just popping through windows.”
The department was unsure what was in the building, which was a big risk. A main hazard was a forklift with a propane tank, which did explode, Morrissey said. There were no injuries.
The fire department’s main concern was preventing the fire from getting to the south end, where the gas line and power lines were located. They were able to control the fire while it was three quarters of the way through the building.
“The roof did come in, and a gravel and asphalt roof makes it difficult because it insulates everything on the inside, which makes it very difficult to get suppression water on the fire. The fire load on these kinds of buildings is typically high. There were a lot of hurdles to get around. We ended up attacking it from the air with the ladder truck, and from the exterior with what we call an indirect attack, to control it and keep it at bay.”
A big public concern was the level of smoke coming out of the building.
“We had a high pressure system come in and really force the smoke down, and really smoke out the whole area, all the way to about third avenue, so we had to initiate a voluntary evacuation.”
There was a reception centre at the Gallagher Centre for people in the area who wanted to get out of the smoke. They were directed to the hospital if they had any medical issues arising from it.Fire crews worked through the night, and finished at about 6:30 a.m. on Jun. 22.
The cause is currently unknown. The investigation is ongoing, but Morrissey said their main concern is safety, since the roof and doorways have been destroyed, making the building unstable.
The warehouse was being used as a storage facility at the time.
Wade Ruff, owner of the neighboring Ruff’s Furniture, is frustrated that the fire happened, and frustrated that the building that caught fire was able to get to the level of disrepair that it had, describing it as an eyesore. There have been incidents of vandalism on the property over the years.
“It’s unfortunate this situation occurred... I am a property owner and subscribe to the idea that if you own property you maintain it, there are certain standards you have in place.”
He said the fire department did an excellent job keeping the public safe over the course of the evening and controlling the blaze.
“The evening of it, [the smoke] was terrible, you couldn’t even see my business.”
Ruff believes that the fire should be a wake-up call to the city, and lead to stricter bylaw enforcement, in order to prevent buildings within the city from getting to the same level of disrepair as the warehouse.
“You’re putting people’s lives in danger unnecessarily, this was preventable.”
