By Jason Halstead
Sun Media
WINNIPEG, Canada — A firefighter was sent to hospital and two others were injured fighting a blaze that started on the roof of a building in South Point Douglas yesterday afternoon as a roofing company worked with hot tar.
The fire ignited about 1 p.m. at the mostly unoccupied block at 92 Gomez St., just east of the Disraeli Freeway. No one other than the firefighters was injured in the blaze.
The Winnipeg Fire Department deployed its aerial unit to knock down flames witnesses said shot several metres into the air at times.
The neighbouring Graffiti Gallery and Syrotech Industries, located across the street, were evacuated.
WFD Platoon Chief Stephen Sumka said the firefighters were injured when a pump failed and knocked them to the ground.
“A connection blew off the engine. The pump operator stands there to operate the pump and he took that full force,” Sumka said. “The two firefighters that were assisting him caught him and that’s what caused their injuries.”
The pump operator was treated on scene by paramedics and taken to hospital for further assessment of his undisclosed but non-life threatening injuries. The other two were treated on scene.
“We were dealing with a major fire caused by roofing materials and hot tar on top of the roof,” Sumka said. “We had some challenges here because we only have one water supply and that’s on Higgins. However, crews worked very hard to get water on the fire quickly.”
Part of Higgins remained closed to traffic for several hours through the afternoon as firefighters worked on the roof to ensure the fire did not continue burning in the roof or spread into the older four-storey brick building. Sumka said there appeared to be no damage to the interior of the building.
Tom Syrota, owner of Syrotech Industries, said he rents space on the bottom floor of the building but that the rest of the block is empty. None of his staff was in the block at the time.
“There was pretty heavy smoke and the flames were 10-12 feet high, but they put it out pretty fast,” Syrota said.
No damage estimate nor information on the exact cause of the fire was available yesterday.