It’s the second fire in eight months at the building

Residents of a Petrolia apartment building will be out of their homes for the night after fire struck the building for the second time in eight months.

Around 2:40 Sunday afternoon, Petrolia/North Enniskillen and Wyoming were called to the Greenfield Street building owned by the County of Lambton when a building resident saw smoke coming from a second floor apartment.

Firefighters were on the scene in minutes and for a time, only small amounts of smoke were seen. Later, flames shot through the window on the second storey as thick black smoke came out in billows before firefighters were able to get it under control.

Residents, many without coats, stood in the parking lot or sidewalks, sat in cars and ambulances or in lawn chairs provided by the fire department’s SORT Team. 

As firefighters made their way up the stairs and to the apartment, the man who lived in the unit arrived. He was at the drug store when the fire broke out. He stood talking to police, his shopping bag in his hand, as police tried to determine what might of happened.

Petrolia/North Enniskillen Fire Chief Jay Arns says all of the residents made it out of the building safely.

“We’re still trying to figure out the cause, but that one apartment is definitely a write off,” says Arns. “Mostly all the damage have been contained. There was smoke, but we’ve ventilated the building, so we should be okay for smoke damage anywhere else. There’s obviously a bit of water damage on both floors. But most of the apartments are still intact.”

This is the second fire at the geared-to-income apartment building in a year. In June, residents were evacuated after multiple units were damaged in a late night fire. Melisa Johnson, manager of housing services for the County of Lambton which owns the building, who was on the scene, said the reconstruction of those apartments was just complete with people moving back into the units this month.

Arns says the only damage to those units was a door which was broken as firefighters entered.

A disaster restoration company is on the scene to clean up the water damage. That means residents will be out of their home overnight, says Arns, adding a shelter will not be set up overnight.

“I don’t think we need to this time. It sounds like they’ve all got a location. If we need to we will, but it sounds like everybody is good.”

Residents at the scene told The Independent fire alarms did not go off in the building until the superintendent pulled a master alarm. One man, who got out of the building with only a T-shirt and jeans on, said he left the building when he heard the commotion in the halls, leaving his cat, wallet and phone behind.

Arns said tenants also told him the alarms did not sound, but when firefighters arrived, they were going off.

Arns says that will be part of the investigation into the fire.

While he wasn’t able to say what caused the fire immediately, he said it appeared it started on or near a couch in the apartment.