Seventeen firefighters responded to a structure fire at Condillo Foods Ltd. on East Lake Boulevard in Airdrie at approximately 3:30 p.m. Nov. 12.
Deputy Chief Garth Rabel of the Airdrie Fire Department said firefighters responded with six pieces of apparatus and were on scene for approximately two and a half hours.
“There was some repair work going on on the roof and some of the equipment that the repair personnel were using inadvertently started a small fire in the building material,” Rabel said.
The construction workers initially attempted to put out the fire with a fire extinguisher but were unable to extinguish it completely, he said.
“They did use that extinguisher to extinguish a majority of the blaze when it started but of course it dug into the different layers of building material and became quite stubborn to try to expose and to fully extinguish,” Rabel said.
“Our team had to use power tools and such to expose the roof and get right down to the seed of the fire to make sure that it was fully extinguished.”
He said some equipment was removed from the roof in order for firefighters to gain access to the seed of the fire and firefighting foam was used to completely extinguish it.
Thermal imaging cameras were also used to determine if the fire had spread inside the building.
“In order to deploy a large water supply hose from an adjacent fire hydrant, a portion of East Lake Boulevard was temporarily closed to traffic,” Rabel said.
Airdrie RCMP officers and community peace officers rerouted traffic for approximately two and a half hours, he said, adding members of the Crossfield Fire Department also provided mutual aid.
Store employees evacuated the building prior to the fire department’s arrival and no injuries were reported during the incident.
The exact cause of the fire and estimated damage remains under investigation.
