Fire Chief Jason Whiteley says the Stradwicks fire last night wasn't suspicious but expects damage in the millions of dollars.
Earlier, Whiteley said they had seen some things during the fire that warranted further investigation.
"They're just finishing up their investigation," Whiteley told BayToday this afternoon. "They haven't given me the determination yet, but it is not suspicious. The couple of things that we saw, we ruled out as a possible cause. When you quickly look at it, well, how did that fire get there? But when you look at the videos and stuff like that, we determined that it was just spread from the fire. So we were just a bit worried that there was more than one fire."
Whiteley confirmed there were no injuries. Fire crews confirmed there were no occupants inside and then went to a defensive fire attack. The fire was under control just after midnight.
A damage estimate hasn't been determined yet but Whiteley expects the dollar loss will be high. The building and contents are considered a total loss.
"We have to sit down with the building owner and figure out the kind of the contents in there. How much do you have in stock? I would say between one and two million dollars at least."
See: Huge structure fire at Stradwicks
And: All hands on deck as fire destroys Stradwicks Carpet One
Whiteley was impressed with the team effort that went into battling the blaze.
When fire crews arrived the back of the structure was fully involved in flames, spreading very quickly within the roofing system.
"It's compounded by the nature of the products that company had, so being carpet, paints...laminate flooring is highly flammable. So it really increased the fuel load in that building which made it even more difficult to get ahead of the fire. And then we also protected the Ultramar behind us. They had two tanker trucks right at their property line so we provided exposure protection for the fuelling station as well."
Whiteley says right now they're concentrating on the fire having started in the roofing area of Stradwicks warehouse, next to its office building. Both were destroyed.
"I'd like to praise the crews for their hard work, but would also like to give kudos to all the emergency responders and our partners...North Bay Police and EMS, our mechanical division, because mechanics ensure that trucks are going to remain working, our public works, and our water division. You know everybody for assisting and making sure that that fire went well. North Bay Hydro is always coming out in the middle of the night, making sure that hydro's shut off for us so that we can work a little safer.
"It's always a team effort on these fires. Our guys are busy battling the fires, but if I need information quickly, or we need the road blocked off...and EMS stands by in case one of my firefighters gets hurt, or there are potential victims. So it's always, for any type of fire or emergency, it's always an all-hands-on response."
