An early morning fire in Dartmouth has claimed the life of one person and displaced 150 others.
The blaze broke out around 3:30 a.m. on Saturday at 81 Primrose Street in north-end Dartmouth.
Brian Gray, the Deputy Chief of Operations for Halifax Fire and Emergency, confirmed that there was one fatality as a result of the fire and that a second person was sent to hospital.
The name, age and gender of the deceased has not been released. Fire officials had no information on the injuries the second person sustained or their current condition.
Forty firefighters were on scene for much of the day battling the blaze and working to stabilize the structure after a portion of the roof collapsed.
“It appears the fire started in a third floor apartment and spread up onto the fourth floor and to the roof of the structure and it spread across some other units,” said Gray.
The blaze was contained mostly to three apartments on the top two floors in one wing of the four-storey, L-shaped building. However, officials say there is smoke or water damage in other apartments.
Power has also been disconnected to the entire 80-unit complex, so all tenants may be displaced for some time.
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The nearby Dartmouth Mosque on Leaman Drive was opened up as a shelter for displaced residents and their pets.
“We’ve got meals here, we’ve got coffee and a place to decompress and relax,” said Emad Aziz, with the Islamic Association of Nova Scotia.
“For overnight stay, we are working with the Red Cross and the Dartmouth North Community Centre to have residents stay there if they choose to do so.”
Halifax Mayor Mike Savage and Coun. Tony Mancini spent time in the area Saturday afternoon, meeting with many residents who lost everything.
Savage said it was “heartwarming” to see the mosque open up in the middle of Ramadan to help those in need.
“I think from our point of view, we just wanted to come down and see if we could do anything to help out, said Savage. “It’s heartwarming to see how everything is working here in the face of tragedy.”
“The citizens are obviously shaken but they’re understanding of the fact that you can’t get back in the building until things are safe.”
Mancini said the community is coming together to help each other out.
“The residents are very concerned. Not only the residents of the building that were displaced because of the fire, but the whole community,” he told Global News.
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“That’s really what we’re taught and we’re just being ourselves in that way. We’re just being Muslims, we’re trying to follow our own message and we part of this community as well. This is our neighbourhood, we live here and we are just doing what we can, as Muslims, to do the best that we can do,” said Salman Sayad, a member of the Dartmouth Mosque.
Aziz said some members of the mosque were the first on scene of the fire.
“The first people who responded to the fire were Muslims going to their morning prayer,” he said. “They saw the initial flames and they were the ones who raised the alarm. What I learned is that a lot of people who are residents in that building came and thanked the Muslim community for waking them up in the night so they could get out in time. Had they not done so, a lot of people would have died today.”
“It’s strange how this all came together and how people come together, but that’s the spirit of being Nova Scotian,” said Aziz.
HRM’s Emergency Measures Office is working with the Red Cross to identify another location where a shelter can be set up for any tenants who are unable to find temporary accommodations.
Volunteers with the Red Cross teams are working to interview tenants in order to determine other emergency needs like clothing, food and other essentials.
Fire crews remain on scene at 81 Primrose Street and are still working to stabilize the building. Once it is safe, firefighters will go inside and search the structure.
At this time, the cause of the fire remains unknown.
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