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| NEWS - November 10, 2009 |
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| Fire destroys Onoway grocery |
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Ian Kucerak and Andrew Serba
Leader Staff
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An Onoway grocery store was levelled by a fire that broke out in the building on the evening of Nov. 2.
Preliminary estimates put the cost of the damage at between $2.5 to $3 million dollars.
Lac Ste. Anne’s director of protective services, Jeremy Wagner, said no injuries were reported among the public or the firefighters.
Wagner said one neighbouring building received some cosmetic damage when the fire melted its siding, but no other property damage was reported.
The fire broke out around 5 p.m. and was declared extinguished around midnight.
Firefighters called in heavy machinery around 9 p.m. to knock down structurally unsound parts of the building, as they worked their hoses across the burning remnants of the food store.
Fire crews stayed overnight to put out the occasional hot spot, Wagner said.
The grocery store, one of three in the community, was completely leveled. At about 5 p.m., the call went out to fire departments in the region, units from Lac Ste. Anne and Parkland County responded to the call.
Ross Bennett, with the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, said Monday that people were inside the building when the fire started, and the evacuation was orderly and safe.
Bennett explained that approximately six people were inside the store at the time.
"Everyone is accounted for," he said, as firefighters continued to fight the blaze.
RCMP personnel were on scene gathering witness statements, but as of press time, the cause of the fire has yet to be released.
Bennett said the investigation crew would begin their work on Nov. 3 to determine the cause of the fire, which Wagner later confirmed.
Bennett said some of the most valuable witness statements are those of the first responders, which in this case were the members of the Onoway Fire Department.
"The statements they give us will tell us the size of fire, where it was, the colour of smoke," Bennett said. "Hopefully they’ll help us determine where and what happened." |
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