A large fire at a storage building in Hamilton’s east side, exacerbated by a roof collapse, kept firefighters busy late Tuesday and into Wednesday morning.
Extinguishing the multi-alarm blaze has been long and drawn out, according to Hamilton’s fire chief, who says smoke from the incident has been thick enough to issue an advisory for nearby residents.
“There is some smoke being generated and it’s travelling in a northly direction,” Chief Dave Cunliffe said just before noon on Wednesday.
“Residents and industry in the area are being advised to keep their windows closed.”
Cunliffe says there were no reported injuries despite the roof caving in at the multi-storey building between Wellington Street North and Victoria Avenue at Birge.
“Firefighters conducting interior operations were withdrawn at this point,” Cunliffe said.
“Firefighting operations were exterior only, utilizing three aerial ladders flowing large volumes of water and large-volume hose lines.”
The structure is one of the former American Can buildings – a heavy timber property that has been around for more than a century located adjacent to the main railway lines just north of the General Hospital just before Birge Street.
Drones have been deployed at various times using thermal imaging to seek out the location of the fire in the roof area.
The cause and estimated cost of damage of the blaze, which was first reported just before midnight, have yet to be determined, according to Cunliffe.
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