Firefighters ‘extremely cognizant’ of water usage as crews battle blaze at Calgary Bulk Barn

Calgary fire crews said they were extremely cognizant of their water usage as they worked to knock down a blaze at a southeast business Thursday morning.

Firefighters were called around 6:20 a.m. to a fire at a Bulk Barn in the 9200 block of Macleod Trail Southeast.

Carol Henke, public information officer with the Calgary Fire Department, said dark smoke was coming from the business, which is located on the west end of a strip mall.

Crews began an “aggressive attack” to chase the fire, according to Henke.

“With buildings that have had multiple renovations, sometimes there’s void spaces, so you have to start pulling down the ceiling and then another ceiling because sometimes there’s multiple layers,” she said. “The fire can hide in spots where you don’t expect and so you have to do a lot of salvage and overhaul to look for all of those hot spots and make sure that it’s completely out.

“We do have heat cameras for that, as well, thermal imaging cameras that are used to find hot spots in behind places so that we can appropriately attack that fire.”

Henke said the business was empty when the fire broke out and no injuries were reported.

Fire crews were able to contain the blaze to the Bulk Barn, she added.

“Firefighters did a great job limiting spread. There will be some smoke damage to some neighbouring businesses, however, the fire damage is limited to the business where the fire started.”

With Calgary’s current water crisis, Henke said Thursday morning she wasn’t yet sure how much water was used to douse the blaze, but said it would be more than the 600 litres used to put out a fire in Bowness on Wednesday.

1:32 Calgary fire crews battle blaze in Bowness

Henke said firefighters were very mindful of their water usage.

“Our firefighters are extremely cognizant of the situation we’re in and everyone is working together to use the minimal amount of water that we can and yet still do the job we need to do.”

The investigation into the cause of the fire is underway. Anyone with photos or video of the fire is asked to email them to Henke at piofire@calgary.ca.

&© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.