Updated Jan. 24 at 11:51 p.m.: Stephane Fex said he heard crackling through the wall of his apartment around 7:30 p.m. this evening and knew he was listening to the sound of a fire.
The four-plex neighbouring his apartment building was on fire.
He immediately cleared his home of people and pets.
"And within 15 minutes of getting out, the entire (neighbouring) building was in flames and it exploded," he told Sudbury.com this evening. He described the explosion as "catastrophic."
"All the windows, walls, caved out at the same time. It was crazy," said Fex, who has lived in his building for two years. "Everyone got to safety before the explosion happened, luckily."
The four residents of Fex's building, as well as the five residents of the apartment building where the fire started, are all accounted for and uninjured. Fex and his neighbours are displaced "as a temporary precaution," Assistant Deputy Fire Chief Craig Lawrence said.
The four-plex ended up burning to the ground, while Fex's neighbouring apartment building suffered some fire damage to an exterior wall. The building is without power, and Lawrence expects it also suffered structural damage. It's unclear when the building's residents will be allowed back in.
Lawrence said Greater Sudbury Fire Services were dispatched to the scene at around 7:28 p.m. Station 16 and Station 18 were the first to respond.
Although the incident is still under investigation, Lawrence said it appears a "smoke explosion" was the cause of the destruction.
Firefighters were blasting water through the front door of the building when another door to the building was opened and "there was a smoke explosion, knocking the firefighters in front of the building to the ground," Lawrence said.
The blast resulted in three firefighters from the first two responding stations receiving non-life-threatening injuries. They were taken to Health Sciences North in stable condition.
The website ScienceDirect describes smoke explosions as being similar to the more familiar "backdraft," though the two phenomena differ a key way. As made famous in the movie of the same name, a backdraft occurs when a large amount of ventilation is suddenly introduced into a closed-room fire environment. The influx of incoming air mixed with the fuel in the space, creating a fireball that can be catastrophic.
A smoke explosion, the article states, is a similar, but not as well understood, phenomenon.
"Anecdotal evidence supports a different phenomenon in which a closed compartment suddenly erupts in flames breaking glass and even causing structural damage without a vent ever being open," states the 2013 paper by Charles M. Fleischmann and ZhiJian Chen of the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Fex told Sudbury.com it was his understanding the fire started at the front of the building in the basement, though Lawrence said the cause of the fire remains under investigation.
As of 10:45 p.m. Jan. 24, fire crews began to disperse, leaving some crews on scene for post-fire monitoring.
Jan. 24 at 9:44 p.m. update
Three Greater Sudbury firefighters were injured in an explosion tonight at a fire on Young Street in Capreol.
Assistant Deputy Chief Craig Lawrence told Sudbury.com at the scene that the firefighters opened a door to the four-plex apartment when a "smoke explosion" occurred. A video of the incident by Nick Lavoie, a neighbour, appears to show the explosion all but level the building, engulfing the firefighters in front of the structure in smoke and flame, and covering them in rubble.
Lawrence said the firefighters, who were from either Station 16 or Station 18 (it is uncertain which at this time), were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The fire displaced the five residents of the four-plex. It also damaged a neighbouring residential building, temporarily displacing four residents there as a precaution, Lawrence said. None of the residents were injured in the incident, he said.
At this time, firefighters continue to battle the fire.
Original story
There is a major fire involving an apartment building at this hour on Young Street in Capreol.
Video taken by Capreol resident Nick Lavoie shows two firefighters attempting to extinguish the blaze before an explosion appears to trap them underneath the rubble as the front collapses. Sudbury.com is looking into the status of these two firefighters.
Deputy Fire Chief Jesse Oshell confirmed firefighters have been on scene since around 7:30 p.m., although he said he’s out of town himself, and had no further details to share at this time.
Citizens have been posting images of the fire to social media, with one poster calling it “massive.”
This is a developing story. A reporter is en route to the scene.
