Petrolia firefighters work inside the Greenfield St. apartment which was destroyed by fire Sunday afternoon.

Petrolia tenants out of their apartments for the night after Sunday afternoon fire

February 5, 2023

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.

Share This

Image
Sports

Forest Xtreme to represent Ontario

April 17, 2025

The Independent The Forest Xtreme will represent Ontario this week at the Eastern Canadian Ringette Championships in Quebec. They are in suburban Montreal panning for gold in the under-16 division involving teams from Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes. Forest opens the round robin portion of the tournament with a game against the PEI Edge tonight. Games continue on Friday with

Read More

Image
News

Renewed Gladu looks for fourth term

April 17, 2025

Cathy Dobson/The Independent There was a period around 2020 when Marilyn Gladu was so disillusioned that she considered retiring from politics. At the time, she’d been Sarnia-Lambton’s MP for five years and was badly stung by a failed attempt to become leader of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC). When Erin O’Toole won that race, Gladu says she did not

Read More

Image
Sports

Lightning win gold at OWHA provincials

April 17, 2025

The Independent Soon another banner will be on display at the Watford Arena. The Lambton Lightning won five consecutive contests last weekend to capture the championship in the Senior C division at the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association provincials in the GTA.   They defeated the Honeywood Badgers, 4-1 in the final.  Lambton had beaten Cornwall, 4-1, blanked Otonabee, 8-0, edged Waterloo, 1-0

Read More

Image
Front Page

BREAKING: Province reneges on EA promise for York1 landfill proposal in Dresden

April 17, 2025

Cites landfill shortage, US tariff threats Proposal on Environmental Registry calls for a larger landfill than York1 first proposed Heather Wright/The Independent There is shock in Dresden after the provincial government dropped a bomb shell heading into the long weekend. Saying the threat of US tariffs is threatening Ontario’s waste sector, the province has launched legislation to remove the environmental

Read More