Nine people are waiting to see when — or if — they can return to their homes after a massive fire shot through the roof of a building, just east of downtown London Saturday morning.
Fire crews arrived to the corner of Dundas and Maitland streets just after 6:30 a.m., where they found a blaze ripping through the backside of a building and up through its basement, second floor and attic, according to platoon chief Jamie Britton.
"We found out through investigators that a fire started in the rear of the structure — basically a big wooden garage [and] porch area — and up into the attic space," said Britton. "There would have been a lot of black smoke and flame showing."
Multiple truck and aerial crews were needed to contain the fire, which Britton said ultimately caused "extensive damage" to the building and minor damage to two neighbouring businesses.
"Possibly a structural engineer will have to come in because the floors were burned through in certain spots and in the attic space, [the damage] has got up into a lot of the joist areas so there could be integrity problems with the roof," he explained.
All occupants made it out of the building with no injuries reported, Britton said, but nine have are not able to return to their homes due to safety concerns.
"They won't be going back any time soon," Britton said, adding that the Red Cross is helping to house people at hotels for the first few nights.
The two surrounding businesses also faced smoke and water damage, Britton said. Total damage is estimated at more than $1 million.
Britton said that due to the amount of damage, London Fire Department investigators and Office of the Fire Marshal inspectors were not able to determine the cause of the fire.
With the investigation now complete, Britton said it's up to the building's owners to get the residence back into shape.