Nineteen Prince Rupert Fire Rescue personnel attended a canteen fire at the Jim Ciccone Civic Center on Nov. 11.
The distress call to attend the kitchen fire came in just as firefighters returned to the station to change out of their dress uniforms after Remembrance day ceremonies came to a close.
Fire Chief Jeff Beckwith told The Northern View crews were on site within two minutes of receiving the 11:47 a.m. call and had the fire extinguished in six minutes.
“We had a very, very, extremely fast response on that. I think if anybody saw the number of apparatus that were rolling to that scene, they’d be like, “Wow, that was very quick,” the chief said.
The fire was contained to the cantina with the metal roller windows and cinder block walls limiting damage to a minimum. No injuries were reported.
Beckwith pointed out rumours of an ammonia explosion were unfounded and there was no concern of this occurrence eventuating.
“There is nothing to do with the ammonia system in the arena for this fire,” he said.
“The fire was accidental. There was nothing suspicious about it,” the fire chief said. “With the early report we were able to get in there quickly with extinguishers and then a firehose to put it out.”
He said luckily, the building facilities, such as the swimming pool, ice rink and gymnasiums were not in use at the time.
“If you think about also having a fire in there and evacuating facility plus the pool with people coming out in their swim gear into the cold temperatures — it would have been a lot. It would have been a very interesting evacuation. Thankfully it was all closed up.”
Beckwith said the Prince Rupert Fire Rescue Department has strengths and abilities that some departments in larger municipalities don’t have.
“The strength of us and departments our size is being able to get to the fire while it’s still growing and hit it fast and early,” the chief said. “We need the right tools to do that and the City of Prince Rupert is giving us the tools to do that. This results in small fires staying small before they turn into big ones.”
“The canteen may not be open tomorrow, but the facility is. We’re hoping it’ll be open tomorrow (Saturday), but it might take a little bit of time before we get fries and gravy again,” Beckwith said.