The OPP detachment in Cambridge has been leveled by a devastating fire Tuesday afternoon.
There were no injuries as a result of some alert thinking by the detachment’s commander, John Mraud.
“Shorty after 2 p.m. today, our detachment commander alerted all the staff who were working inside that there was smoke and visible flames coming from the roof,” OPP Const. Lauren Ball said.
Mraud said he was looking out his window when he saw the problem.
“I was just looking out my detachment window when I noticed some flames and smoke so I walked outside just to see where it was coming from and I saw flames and a lot darker smoke coming from the back corner of the roof,” he explained.
“So I went back inside the detachment and a 911 call was made to fire and we evacuated the building.”
Ball said there were “five or six” people inside the building when the fire broke out.
“It was kind of slow to start but once the flames erupted from the back corner of the building it seemed to go pretty fast and we all just stood in disbelief that it spread so quickly,” she said.
There is not word on what caused the fire. Ball said the Ontario’s Office of the Fire Marshal will investigate with the help of the Cambridge Fire Department.
Mraud said that service will be uninterrupted.
“We will keep doing our job to the best of our abilities like we have since the building opened in 1986,” he said.
The OPP detachment will temporarily take up office in Milton at the collision reporting centre on Steeles Avenue.
“If you call the OPP for help, operations won’t be interrupted. We still have officers on the road and we’re responding to calls for service,” Ball said.