Sentinel Industrial Park west of Lac La Biche has one less building, after a large fire earlier today collapsed the roof at Apex Distribution Inc. near the edge of the park.
Sentinel Industrial Park west of Lac La Biche has one less building, after a large fire earlier today collapsed the roof at Apex Distribution Inc. near the edge of the park.
Lac La Biche Fire Services, RCMP and EMS responded to the fire at approximately 10:30 this morning, and arrived to see that the building’ s roof was smoldering.
All other fire departments in Lac La Biche County also responded, and some firefighters from Boyle were dispatched as well. Firefighters battled the blaze for approximately three hours, but could not save the building as flames engulfed the roof. There were no reported injuries.
Regional Fire Chief John Kokotilo believes an electrical issue started the fire. He said he spoke with an Apex employee, who told him that one side of the building didn’ t have power this morning.
“The offices did, but the main warehouse didn’ t have any power - [they] never thought anything of it, just went to check the electrical panel,” he said, adding that an employee at Lac La Biche Transport, across Highway 55 from the Apex building, noticed flames coming out of the roof. “When you’ ve got an industrial building with flames through the roof, you’ ve got a little bit of a problem... It had to have started on the warehouse side, and I’ m thinking electrical short from what it looks like.”
All of the water used to fight the fire was hauled in with water tankers, as there were no fire hydrants in the vicinity of the building. Kokotilo said it was a challenge to keep up with the demand for water to fight the fire, but they managed to get the job done.
“It was a little bit of a problem. We did have enough to initially start but once we started using the ladder unit we had to have the trucks coming in regularly,” he said, adding that they got help from Lac La Biche County employees and some local businesses who brought their own water trucks. “There’ s no hydrants in this area... I think it was more effective using the tankers, and they did a fantastic job.”
Kokotilo said firefighters were almost able to save the building, but once the other end of the roof caught fire it was too late, and they had to move back. Once a building is beyond saving, safety becomes the biggest concern.
“We just make sure we’ re clear of the building and that nobody goes inside,” he said, adding that there needs to be a lot of clearance from the building in case it collapses. “You stay away from a building collapse two and a half times the width, or at least one and a half if it’ s a wood-frame.”
Chad Colbourne, outside salesman and safety coordinator at Apex, said this morning started off fairly normally, as employees had gathered in the office to eat breakfast together. It was while they were eating that the smoke became apparent.
“We were all sitting down at the front counter there having some breakfast and a bellow of smoke came out. We stepped outside and believe it or not, it was coming from our roof. So from there we all evacuated and let this fantastic fire department take control of what was going on,” he said, adding that watching the building he had shown up to work in get destroyed by flames was a strange feeling. “I can’ t believe we were in this building two hours ago from what it looks like right now. It’ s unbelievable, it’ s surreal.”
Colbourne was thankful for the fire department’ s response.
“Unfortunately, it [the building] was unsaveable, but the men and women doing their job here right now are unbelievable, so, thanks to them.”
