A small army of Ottawa firefighters battled a three-alarm fire that broke out on the rooftop deck of a three-storey building in the ByWard Market on Monday evening.
District fire Chief Steve Pollex said no people were in the building, which houses both commercial and residential units, when firefighters arrived at the intersection of Cumberland and Murray streets shortly after 6:30 p.m.
Firefighters reached the roof, which had erupted in black smoke, through the interior of the building and via two ladder trucks. They extinguished the fire within 30-40 minutes, according to Pollex.
The cause of the blaze, which firefighters confined to the roof, has not yet been determined. The rooftop deck was only accessible to residents.
A crew of 60 to 70 firefighters responded the blaze, Pollex estimated.
At around 8 p.m., Pollex said crews were “taking stuff apart” to ensure the fire hadn’t spread any further and also working to save the contents of the second- and third-floor units from water damage.
The three-storey building is home to 302, 304 and 306 Cumberland Street, and is located on the west side of the road.
Sean Meagher, who works in Snippers hair salon on the ground floor, was sitting on the pavement across the road, waiting to find out the extent of any water damage to the salon.
When he entered the salon with firefighters around 7:30 p.m., after the blaze had been extinguished, he said they didn’t find “that much water in there.”
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Firefighters were dumping buckets of water from a window of the north-facing, third-floor apartment. That unit is currently unoccupied, according to a woman who was set to move into the space in a week’s time.
At least 10 fire trucks, paramedics and police rushed on scene to assist. The Ottawa Fire Service and police closed Cumberland Street to traffic between St. Patrick Street and York Street.
Pollex said the department rated the blaze a three-alarm fire because of current weather conditions and “the high heat.” It was roughly 30 C as crews tackled the fire.
“It did look like a fairly substantive fire … when we first reported on scene,” Pollex said.
The fire inspector still has to complete the investigation into what caused the fire.
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