Firefighters battle blaze on Ottawa Street
January 14, 2009
By Emma Reilly amd John Burman
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/495971
Mike Mojsiloich had just got to work when police told him to get out.
Flames roaring through the Indigo Decorating Centre store meant Mojsiloich could not stay at his job at Zorro’s Cleaners behind the burning building on Ottawa Street North at Campbell Avenue.
Mojsiloich said there was “a lot of smoke and a lot of flames” pouring from the paint and carpet store when he left the cleaners.
Hamilton firefighters are still on the job and expecting to be there most of the morning, battling smoke and flames inside the two-storey brick building as well as brutally cold temperatures which quickly turned water over spray to ice.
The roof of the building collapsed just before 8 a.m.
No cause has been determined and not estimate of damage is available
The two-alarm fire, at the intersection of Campbell Street and Ottawa, broke out on the first floor at 4:40 a.m. and spread into the second quickly A passerby spotted flames inside and called 911
It has burned through the Indigo Decorating Centre, consumed stocks of paint and carpet and sent flames roiling out through the roof.
Indigo’s owners, who have had the business for four years are at the scene and too upset to comment at this time.
The interior ground floor of the two-storey brick building has collapsed and firefighters are fighting to keep flames out of adjoining buildings, using two aerial trucks, one in front and one at the rear to pour water into the building.
Xian Meng, owner of Zorro’s cleaners, said he had just put $50,000 into renovations in his store and has suffered smoke damage but fire did not reach his business.
He said he is worried about the smoke though, because it has been very heavy.
There have been no reports of injuries although at least one firefighter is reported to have slipped and fell on the now icy street.
There are apartments above the two-storey store but fire officials report they were empty.
Although police Mojsiloich at dry cleaners shop to leave the premises, there has been no evacuation ordered in the largely business district.
The building – in the middle of the Ottawa Street fabric district – is bounded by stores, including Greta’s Flair, a lingerie shop next door.
Fire has not got through the brick firewall between Indigo’s and the lingerie store, but water and smoke have got into Greta’s.
The owners Greta’s Flair – a fixture on Ottawa Street North for 25 years –are on the scene but declined comment
Police have blocked Ottawa Street North between Barton Street East and Cannon Street and have asked the city to send plows and sanders into the neighbourhoods on either side of Ottawa Street to clear snow clogged residential streets and to handle expected traffic.
This is the second time in less than 24 hours Hamilton fire crews have worked in bone-chilling temperatures with the ever present danger of ice underfoot. On Monday, crews fought a $500,000 blaze that destroyed a Seabreeze Crescent home in Stoney Creek.
An HSR bus has been dispatched to the scene to provide a warm shelter from the -14C temperatures and -27 wind chill for firefighters to rest in rotation.
Box 43, the volunteer coffee wagon called to major fires, is on the site.
City works crews are on the scene with truckloads of salt to deal with frozen run-off water.
The Ministry of Environment has been informed and a city front end loader has been called to remove snow banks along Ottawa Street so sewer grates can be located and sealed so runoff water from the paint in the store does not go down the drains.
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