Emergency crews are on the scene of a multiple-alarm fire at a warehouse in Hamilton’s east end, a blaze that firefighters are considering to be suspicious.
On Thursday at around 4:20 a.m., fire crews received a report of a structure blaze on Gage Avenue South near Gage Park.
Crews arrived at a one-storey warehouse, which was a former National Grocers outlet.
“We had heavy flames showing through the roof as well as heavy smoke. The alarm was quickly upgraded to a multiple-alarm, bringing resources right across the city here,” Fire Chief Dave Cunliffe tells CHCH News.
Cunliffe says crews quickly got two aerials up in the air due to many combustibles inside the building.
“It appears that the building’s being used for storage, so there are all kinds of different components inside and what happened is because we had a roof collapse very early on,” Cunliffe says.
“The fire is now trapped underneath the roof structure that’s collapsed and into the contents that are inside.”
Due to there being structural issues with some of the walls, Cunliffe says crews have been putting out the fire with aerial devices and some handlines.
“We’ve got the fire knocked down, it is under control but it’s going to be burning and smoldering pretty much most of the day. So crews are going to be here for a while,” he says.
“This is a warehouse that’s being used for storage. At this point we don’t know of any ignition sources, so we’re considering this to be suspicious at this point.”
The Ontario Office of the Fire Marshal has been notified and crews are also in contact with Hamilton police.
No injuries have been reported at this time.
Cunliffe says firefighters are expected to be on scene most of the day, into the early evening.
He says crews have trapped fire into combustibles that are inside but it is a slow process. They might have to bring in an exhibitor at some point to try to open up the building.
As a result, Gage Avenue South is expected to remain closed in both directions between Lawrence Road and Cumberland Avenue.