Ottawa firefighters battle Byward market blaze

Ottawa Fire Services spent most of Friday afternoon battling a blaze that tore through the Vittoria Trattoria Italian restaurant in Byward Market.

Firefighters say they called a second alarm at around 11:30 a.m. with a third and fourth alarm coming shorting afterward.

According to Ottawa fire, the fire originated in the “cock loft” area of the building which is shared among the other buildings in the row.

All occupants were evacuated, and there were no reported injuries.

Firefighters say that adjacent buildings were also evacuated due to “rapidly deteriorating conditions” at the time.  Firefighters that were working on the roofs were also told to evacuate due to it beginning to collapse.

Fire chief Kim Ayotte spoke to reporters Friday afternoon to give a bigger picture on the extent of the operation.

“These buildings are all attached and the fire tends to spread from building to building,” said Ayotte.

Ayotte went on to further confirm that the fire is primarily in the roof area and that firefighters are doing their best to mitigate spread to other units.

Ayotte said firefighters deployed a defensive attack until they had a degree of control on the initial blaze.

According to the chief, there are approximately 20 rigs on scene of the three-alarm blaze though with the tight quarters of the market only a handful of those rigs fit. That later expanded to around 50 with the fourth alarm call.

Ayotte later confirmed to media that the roof of Vittoria Trattoria did collapse in the fire and that there was damage to the adjacent buildings as well. While he could not give an exact dollar amount of damage he did say it will be “substantial.”

More to come.