Firefighters were back at the scene of a stubborn fire that extensively damaged the former House of Nazareth Shelter in Moncton on Wednesday, tending to flare ups.
Moncton’s Divison Chief Charles LeBlanc says crews were called back to the scene around 7 a.m. after the RCMP on location reported seeing smoke coming from the building.
“There is extensive damage to the building and obviously within the next few days evaluations will be done on the building to see if it is safe and structurally sound,” said LeBlanc.
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LeBlanc said it’s still unclear what started the fire, but Codiac RCMP have also been involved in the investigation.
“It’s a pretty sad day for the organization,” said executive director of the House of Nazareth, Jean Dube.
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Dube said a “black box” style computer was recovered from the building by firefighters, which contains video surveillance footage from inside the building.
“There is footage so they are looking at exactly what was going on inside prior to the fire starting,” he said
RCMP Corporal Mike Titus told Global News that “one person” is seen in the video but he would not say if the person was male or female.
He said the image is not being released to the public at this time and the investigation is ongoing.
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Dube said the former shelter on Clark street was vacant at the time of the fire. He said that residents that had been living there were moved to the new downtown shelter on Monday.
“Right now I feel for the organization, I feel for the people who we have helped over the past 40 years at the Clark street location. There is a lot of history there,” Dube said.
He also said that decades worth of old archived photos were lost along with a large amount of food, donations and kitchenware.
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Meanwhile, plans to turn the former shelter into a transition house are being reevaluated, according to Dube.
He said the property was insured but given the extent of the damage he is unsure if it is salvageable.
“We will sit down with the board and see where we want to go.”