HALIFAX – About 20 people were forced out of their homes Wednesday following an early evening apartment fire in Halifax’s Fairview neighbourhood.
The fire broke out in a three-storey apartment building at 15 Mandeville Court around 5:00 p.m.
Charlene Trenaman noticed smoke billowing from underneath the sink inside her sister Niki’s third-floor unit and alerted the building’s superintendent.
Halifax Regional Fire Service says the fire originated on the building’s first floor, where someone was working on a kitchen sink with a plumber’s soldering torch.
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“(It) ignited the insulation on the inside of the walls and it ran up the wall,” Assistant Deputy Chief Bryan Clarke says.
He estimates there was about $400,000 damage to the building.
“It got in the floors and started to run along the joists in the hallway so walls had to be pulled and floors opened up to check for extension and extinguish the fire,” Clarke says.
The 32-unit building is home to about 50 residents, but most were not home at the time.
The Canadian Red Cross found temporary lodging for six families, while other tenants stayed with family or friends.
Clarkes says it’s unknown how long it will be before residents can move back into their apartments.
*With files from Ray Bradshaw
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