Edmonton firefighters battled a massive blaze at a commercial complex at Stony Plain Road and 156 Street on Friday morning.
The fire department was initially alerted by an alarm call at 5:27 a.m. and were at the scene by 5:32 a.m. The building was fully involved by the time they got there.
“Crews came to the back of the building, saw heavy smoke coming from the back of the building,” District Chief Paul Brooks said.
“They tried to make entry at that point. They couldn’t. The fire had pushed them back out.
“It’s a very compartmentalized building. So at that point, we went to more of a defensive attack.”
A second alarm was called at 6:07 a.m. and 13 units were responding as of 7 a.m.
Brooks said at the peak of the fire, there were about 40 firefighters at the scene.
“Initially, there was a lot of smoke in the area,” Brooks said. “We had to shut down Stony Plain Road and 156 Street.”
Edmonton police were helping with traffic and asked drivers to avoid the area during Friday morning’s commute.
No one was injured, Brooks said.
“There were some residents in the adjacent buildings and they got out OK.
“Fire crews did an excellent job stopping it from getting next door. There is a fire wall. It did breach the wall a little bit but crews were able to stop it and save the building,” he said.
Shawn Kelly, who lives in an apartment next door, said he woke up at around 5:30 a.m. to his kids’ coughing.
“My kids’ mom woke me up at about 5:30 this morning, saying it was really smoky and she wanted me to get up and look around. I went out on the back roof and firefighters were already out there telling us to leave the building,” Kelly said.
“It was a little freaky. I looked out the front windows at first and saw nothing but smoke. I couldn’t even see the street. So I went out to the back — I have a roof access behind there — and saw all the smoke coming out of the roof.
“There were already a lot of firefighters out there,” Kelly said.
“We were worried it would get through the walls. It’s pretty smoky inside there.”
An adult video store was destroyed in the fire. A damage estimate and cause has yet to be determined.
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