Heather Wright/The Independent

Lambton Shores fire officials are still trying to pinpoint the cause of the $10 million fire at RONA Hardware in Grand Bend.

Chief Sean Smith says crews were called to the scene around 2 pm Friday by staff. Smoke was coming from the building and trapped inside the roof of the former mini-mall, Smith says.

“The construction material on the exterior being steel cladding made it difficult to access that roof structure,” he says. “The fire progressed likely based on the construction of the roof being open space of any fire breaks of any kind.”

Photos from the scene show billows of smoke rolling from under the roof and filling the sky.

Chief Smith says a backhoe was quickly called to the scene to help pull the steel cladding off the building. “The decision was made fairly early on that we weren’t going to be able to make any progress on suppression if we didn’t do take those extreme measures to start opening up the structure from the exterior. We weren’t going to put people inside of that structure,” he tells The Independent.

Firefighters from five of the six Lambton Shores stations were on hand as well as firefighters from Exeter and Dashwood. Ontario Street/Highway 21 was closed from 2 pm to just before 1 am Saturday.

While there is little left from the building, Chief Smith is confident Lambton Shores fire investigators will be able to determine what happened.

“There’s nothing much left of the structure that would be beneficial for investigating cause and origin, but we’re confident with statements and stuff like that that we’ll be able to get to from employees and people on scene that will be able to get to a cause and origin,” Smith says.

Fire officials estimate the total loss around $10 million.

While RONA was the latest business in the building, it has a long history in Grand Bend. Deputy Mayor Dan Sageman says over the years it has housed Betty and Arts grocery store, Grand Bend Decorating, Leisure Time Sports, Pineridge Construction, Dale’s Pro Hardware.