NORTH BAY — There is another gaping hole in North Bay’s downtown.
Crews are working to clean up piles of rubble from buildings destroyed in what is being called a suspicious fire from early Friday morning.
“The fire involved six occupancies. What I mean by occupancies is different businesses,” explained North Bay Fire Chief Jason Whiteley.
Literacy Nipissing, and two unoccupied businesses, one a former sushi restaurant, and the other, the former location of Hair Bizarre, are a total loss.
The Nurse Practitioners Led Clinic sustained a considerable amount of damage, as did Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli’s constituency office.
Some of the buildings housed residential units.
The local office of the Canadian Red Cross has been assisting those displaced by the fire.
“Some people didn’t come through us, but we assisted 13 people. They are all adults, no children. There was one young lady who is due in about seven days. We helped with food, clothing, bus passes and hotel rooms,” said John Best.
“We generally provide for three nights. We’ve arranged for them to stay until Monday night. Tuesday morning, they have to find another place to stay. I don’t know if we can extend past that. It will depend on budget reasons and circumstances.”
The Red Cross will not be accepting donations of clothing or household items. Instead, it welcomes any monetary donations people can afford to give.
Money can be dropped off at Its office at 1275 Main Street West.
“We use a voucher system and we use gift cards. We found that was the most effective method. That way we can give people exactly what they need, when they need it.”
Michelle Trudeau, chair of the Downtown Improvement Area calls the situation “devastating.”
“The devastation we are feeling is for the merchants and businesses affected by the fire at the busiest time of the year,” said the DIA chair.
“This is absolutely another blow to the downtown. I think I’m a little bit shocked to be honest. We’ve certainly been affected by fires in the past and this is not very nice.”
Trudeau met with city officials Friday.
“They have decided not to enforce parking in the downtown for the rest of Christmas which will be very helpful. The downtown businesses, the one’s that can be, are open.’
Trudeau made the rounds Friday, speaking with downtown merchants.
“People are sad for the business owners that are going through this. I think the consensus is people are just sad, wanting to offer support to the businesses, whatever that is. Can we help you set up temporarily? Can we house product for you? The people who are affected are in shock and just can’t make a decision right now. In the days to come, we will be as supportive and as helpful as we can as a group, as a community.”
Peter Chirico President and CEO of the North Bay and District Chamber of Commerce says the chamber is also offering support.
“It is devastating for the downtown. It is terrible that it has happened just before Christmas. Some of the downtown merchants are obviously going to be affected during this period. Our hearts go out to them and we’re here to support them in any way we possibly can,” said Chirico.
“Certainly, we’ll be in touch with city officials and we will be talking with the DIA to see what we can do, how we can mobilize, anything that may help out with this situation.”
Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli whose constituency office sustained significant smoke and water damage was quick to thank firefighters who were working in freezing temperatures, cold enough to send one firefighter to hospital with frost bite.
“We are very grateful to the firefighters for their work. We know the business community as always will rally and support each other in our downtown,” said Fedeli.
“Our hearts go out to all our neighbours. Our office of course is affected. It would appear we will likely be open again in the new year.”
Patients of the downtown North Bay Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic can still attend their scheduled appointments by attending the West Ferris location on Lakeshore Drive.
Literacy Nipissing is working out the details on how to move forward.
Fire Chief Jason Whitely says the fire appears to have started in the former sushi restaurant building.
“We got the call at 12:30 Friday morning and it was for a fire from the Oak Street entrance. We always try to be offensive and go inside, that is the best way to get to the fire, but our crews got quickly pushed out. There was too much fire. We had fire on the first and second floors. It was no longer safe to keep people inside,” said Whiteley
All three fire stations responded.
“We did a callback of personnel to come down to the scene, and to have crews available to still protect the city. At the height when we had shift change, we probably had 20 plus firefighters.”
The age of the buildings created its own set of challenges.
“When you have buildings this old and they’ve got 100 years of renovations and construction, you get these spaces where the fire hides and moves. It is tough for us to get to, especially if we can’t get inside the building. If we get inside, we can open up the walls and get to the fire much quicker, but in this case the fire had too much of a hold. It was in the roof and on two floors. It found its way and just kept creeping. We were able to make a good stop, so we didn’t lose more than we did.”
The fire department had to deal with equipment freezing and frozen water creating icy conditions.
“City works was also down here because at one point the sewers weren’t allowing the water to flow properly, so we had quite the water flow pooling down below.”
By mid-morning the fire was under control, with crews working to put out hotspots.
Whiteley said it was lucky crews managed to stop the fire where they did, otherwise the entire end of the block could have been lost.
