A stubborn fire at the old Odd Fellows building near City Hall has kept Thunder Bay fire fighters busy all day.
Platoon Chief John Kaplanis tells us his crews were called to the scene on May Street Sunday night around 9 o’clock, and due to the structure of the building he expected them to be there all day, and possibly into tomorrow.
Crews were still running water onto the building as of six o’clock Monday night, and May Street is closed between Donald and George Streets.
“It’s got layers and layers and layers of renovations done to it over the years, so that fire is deeply seated into the walls and ceiling of the building, so we’re just trying to make sure it doesn’t come out of the building,” says the platoon chief.
He adds it’s still far too early to speculate on the cause.
“The building, to the best of our knowledge, has been boarded up and locked up for some time now. Upon arrival, we checked the perimeter of the building. It was not breached, or opened up that we could see. So it’s not known how the fire was started,” says Kaplanis.
The fire platoon chief says it’ll be a while before it’s completely put out.
“It takes a long time for these components to burn through, in the void spaces of the building, of where the fire hides. As you can see, it’s just now starting to push through the roof,” notes the platoon chief.
The police and fire departments evacuated the Shelter House next door, with people taken on city buses to a local hotel, where they were provided with food and a place to stay.
