Major fire near Main Street and Sutherland Avenue disrupts morning commute: WFPS

WINNIPEG -

Winnipeg Fire and Paramedic Services (WFPS) personnel responded to a major fire in the 800 block of Main Street Tuesday morning.

The first call-out was at around 12:30 a.m. when crews responded to reports of a fire in a four-storey commercial-industrial building.

According to a news release from the City of Winnipeg, a second alarm was called in due to the nature and location of the fire.

When the first crews arrived, they encountered heavy smoke and flames coming from the building.

Initially an interior, offensive attack was launched but due to high heat and smoke conditions crews were forced to exit the building and transition to an exterior, defensive attack using aerial ladders and water streams.

The WFPS expects to be on scene well into Tuesday.

All northbound lanes on Main Street have reopened to traffic as of Tuesday afternoon. Southbound traffic is closed at Selkirk Avenue and is being detoured, the WFPS said.

Tom Wallace, deputy chief with the WFPS, said nobody was found inside the building with the fire, but there were nearby buildings that had to be evacuated.

“We were able to get them into the building just a short time ago with the help of emergency social services to retrieve pets and medications and some other belongings,” he said.

Wallace noted fire crews will remain on scene for several hours to watch for hot spots and to make sure there’s no recurrence of the fire.

The city said nobody was in the building at the time of the fire, but a neighbouring apartment block was evacuated as a precaution.

The cause of the fire is being investigated. Damage estimates are not available, but the building is expected to be a complete loss.