Princess Street between Alfred and Frontenac streets in Kingston, Ont., was closed after a fire broke out at an abandoned pizzeria Tuesday night.
Dark smoke poured out of the top of the old abandoned Gino’s Pizzeria building on Princess Street for over 12 hours Wednesday morning, the smell lingering in the air.
“The fire occurred late yesterday. On arrival, crews were confronted with heavy smoke and flame. As you can see from in the background, suppression activities are currently ongoing right now,” said Ted Posadowski, chief fire prevention officer, Kingston Fire and Rescue.
Kingston Fire and Rescue was on the scene just before 10:30 Tuesday night, battling flames that became heavy smoke that continued into the morning hours.
“There were reports of individuals that maybe have been in the building at the time of the fire, but … we’ve been notified that they’re OK.”
As the burning continued, an excavator was called in.
“The roof has collapsed and we need to get into some hot spots, and that excavator facilitates that so we can extinguish the fire.”
Around 6 a.m. the excavator arrived and Utilities Kingston shut off services to the building, so a safe excavation and extinguishing of the fire could occur.
The excavation process began just after 10 a.m., and the building was demolished to ensure all hot spots were taken care of.
Kingston Fire and Rescue confirmed that there are no injuries in relation to this incident.