A number of buildings in downtown Edmonton were evacuated Thursday night because of an electrical fire.
City Centre Mall, TD Tower and Oxford Tower were all evacuated around 7 p.m. by fire fighters after they found smoke in the basement.
The power was shut off to all of those buildings, as well as Sutton Place Hotel, but the hotel has its own generator.
The fire was contained to a concrete room, but crews are expected to remain on scene well into the night as they’re having difficulty getting the smoke out of the building.
Acting District Chief Daniel Blackburn with Edmonton Fire Rescue said there were multiple units on scene initially looking for the source of the fire. Then additional crews helped with search and rescue – including of people stuck on the 22nd floor of Oxford Tower, as well as lighting.
“It was difficult circumstances but they determined that there was an electrical fire down below the loading dock. The difficulty here was that access is difficult and we had to wait to get the power out. Conditions included heavy smoke in the basement and that hampered our efforts as well.”
The cause has not yet been determined and there are no reports of injuries.
Blackburn couldn’t give an estimation of when the buildings might be reopened.
The fire was officially declared out at 11:15 p.m. Thursday.
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