More than 100 firefighters battle blaze in south Edmonton industrial area
A billowing plume of black smoke drifted across the city as emergency crews battled a massive fire in a south Edmonton industrial area Saturday afternoon.
The fire broke out at about 1:30 p.m. in a complex near 83rd Street and Wagner Road, said Edmonton Fire Rescue spokesperson Kristi Bland.
Crews encountered a fully-involved fire when they arrived on scene, and immediately called for additional support to deal with the flames and smoke. By 2:30 p.m., even more firefighters were called in to help, Bland said.
At the peak of the fire, 27 trucks and 108 firefighters were battling the blaze. Three of them were taken to hospital for observation and were released Saturday night.
"When the fire is that large or when they're going through a whole tank of the oxygen that they have, there's a procedure that we do to make sure that our firefighters are safe on scene," Bland said, adding that EMS assessed all of the firefighters that fought the flames.
The three who were taken to hospital weren't injured, she said, but their vital signs weren't completely normal, and needed to be monitored.
Bland said the complex where the fire started was severely damaged, along with a building beside it.
There weren't any people inside at the time, so nobody was injured.
The fire was under control just before 5 p.m. Crews remained on scene Saturday evening, sifting through debris.
The fire was declared out just after 5 a.m. Sunday morning.
"The firefighters worked extremely hard this afternoon," Bland said. "It was a huge fire and they did a really great job of getting it under control and quickly as possible."
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
