‘It was a challenging fire’
All tenants in Bowlen Street apartment building were safely evacuated, says assistant deputy fire chief, but he added structure could be total loss, cause of blaze undetermined
Firefighters quickly shifted from offensive to defensive tactics when dealing with a northside apartment-building blaze Wednesday morning due to how rapidly the fire spread to the attic, said a top fire official.
The Fredericton Fire Department and Fredericton Police Force issued advisories through social media in the wee hours of Wednesday morning about a major fire at a Bowlen Street apartment building.
Assistant deputy fire chief Craig Harnum told reporters at a news conference later in the day that the initial alarm came into the Fredericton Fire Department at 2:13 a.m.
He said he’s positive every tenant got out safely.
Brent Brooks, assistant deputy chief of hazmat, training and logistics, who’s only been with the Fredericton Fire Department for three days, said it was impressive to see how police, firefighters and other emergency responders came together quickly to ensure the safety of all inside the building.
Harnum said the blaze at the four-storey structure was what firefighters term a mid-size fire.
“It was a challenging fire,” he said, noting that upon arrival, firefighters took an offensive approach, entering the building to fight the blaze.
But the situation changed quickly and grew far more dangerous, Harnum said, which prompted firefighters to withdraw and fight the blaze from the ground outside.
“It rapidly advanced into the attic of the structure,” he said. “Everything went downhill quickly for us.”
The defensive approach meant the goal became to contain the fire to the apartment building and to prevent its spread to other neighbouring buildings, Harnum said, and Fredericton firefighters - along with colleagues from the Oromocto and Base Gagetown fire departments - were successful in that regard.
The fire department advised it had the blaze contained shortly before 8 a.m. and extinguished later.
What caused the fire and in what part of the building it started remains under investigation, Harnum said, and it could be days or weeks before those elements would be determined.
He said it’s not known if any criminality is suspected in the fire.
“The building is pretty much a total loss,” he said, adding that’s just his impression, and it’s unknown if the owners will tear it down or rebuild from what remains.
Harnum didn’t know when tenants could return to the site to retrieve belongings, though he noted the top floor was definitely not safe for anyone at this point.
He said the Canadian Red Cross was co-ordinating immediate housing arrangements for those displaced by the fire, though typically, they offer places to stay for the initial 72 hours.
When asked if the Bowlen Street fire had much in common with one in September 2023 that caused extensive damage to a similar apartment building on Clark Street, not far away, Brooks said that will be studied.
He said fire departments across North America share data on fires to identify trends, and he noted Thursday’s blaze was the 106th such mid-size fire in North America.
A reporter asked if there was something about the designs of such apartment buildings that could make them susceptible to such incidents, Brooks answered, “This is what we have to find out.”
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.
Isn't that the building with a short but extremely sordid history? Very glad they got everyone out, obviously tragic when any building burns down. I feel guilty for being annoyed at traffic on the way to work, when people's homes were literally on fire.