Downtown fire quickly contained

It was chaos on Queen Street and New Road late this evening as a fire at the Simon Quan warehouse sent authorities scrambling to keep the blaze from spreading to the congested downtown business area. The alarm was raised around five o’clock this evening and in the ensuing effort to put the blaze out, News 5 understands that at least two people had to be treated on site for smoke inhalation. Fire officials are at this hour still at the scene pouring water on the smouldering warehouse. Fire Chief Henry Baizar says the blaze was quickly surrounded to keep it from spreading.

Henry Baizar, Fire Chief

“What we know so far, the fire is internal. It’s in the building, it’s upstairs, it’s probably in the storeroom and we are fighting it from inside. There are not much flames, there’s a lot of smoke because of the fire load that’s in there. We have it all surrounded, we have water coming in from Queen Street and we have water going in from off New Road. We have just put in bigger pump in the place and it will pump a whole lot of water into the building to try and keep it cool and to contain it as quick and as long as possible.”