Fire at unfinished building in Halifax brought under control

Halifax firefighters spent Tuesday morning working to knock down a fire at a building under construction on the corner of Robie and St. Albans streets.

Halifax Fire and Emergency district chief Pat Kline said the fire appeared to have started with a tar pot that caught roofing materials on fire.

“It was slightly higher than our aerial, so we had to get the firefighters above it, drop hoses down to the aerial to feed them with water, because there’s no water in the building for fighting the fire,” he said.

Kline said some propane tanks exploded when firefighters first arrived, but “luckily” most of the debris landed in the construction site, rather than the street where people were.

No injuries were reported and the fire was brought under control.

“The crews did a great job getting at it really quickly,” Kline said.

The fire sent a cloud of thick black smoke into a sky, prompting the municipality to issue an alert warning of the “possibly toxic” smoke.

It said residents living on the peninsula, from the Windsor Street Exchange to Point Pleasant Park, should close their windows and shut off air exchangers.

Witness Jessie Litven said she was working from home nearby when she heard several firetrucks go by around 8 a.m.

“I ran outside and there was a huge cloud of really, really dark grey smoke, and I knew it was bad,” she said.

As she was watching the fire unfolding, she said she heard two explosions as the firefighters worked to put out the flames.

“I just could not believe how brave these firefighters (were,)” she said. “It looked incredibly terrifying.”