THUNDER BAY – The last embers of Wednesday’s blaze that consumed the Finnish Labour Temple were put out on Thursday by Thunder Bay Fire Rescue crews.
“They’re tired. You know, we’ve got a fresh crew on today. We did call in additional crews last night during the peak of the fire to rotate staff out and have them rehab,” said fire chief Greg Hankkio.
“It’s always difficult fighting a fire like this in these conditions; it’s cold, it’s wet, you know, large fire. They’re tired.”
Thunder Bay Fire Rescue received the call for the fire at 6:55 p.m. and the first truck arrived on the scene within four minutes and began assessing the scene and advancing lines into the building. Crews were originally fighting the fire from within the building but as the fire spread it quickly became too dangerous forcing firefighters outside where they focused on an exterior attack.
During the peak of the fire, six of the city’s eight front-line pumpers were on scene along with two aerial apparatuses and a command office. An additional 22 overtime crews were called in as well to rotate throughout the night.
The crews battling the fire were also assisted by a drone with thermal imaging cameras that helped crews locate hot spots in the building, a first for the City of Thunder Bay.
The investigation into the start of the fire won’t be able to begin for a few days according to Jon Mercier, fire investigator with the office of the Fire Marshal.
“Once suppression operations are complete, we have to determine the structural integrity, whether it’s even safe to enter the building and work. From there, we may require heavy equipment,” Mercier said.
“So bringing that in and then determining the resources we need to deal with the building. By the time all that happens, the water that’s in the building is going to be froze so there’s going to be a lot of challenges to face moving forward.”
The ice from the water used to put out the blaze will make the work more difficult and time-consuming but Mercier says that the office of the Fire Marshal has support units that have the equipment to thaw the ice in any area that the investigators need to access.
Even when the investigation is complete, we may not know the true cause of the fire, especially with a fire as big as this one.
“We examine every possibility and we take it all into consideration and work through our methodology and try to determine, like I said, an area of origin and then possible ignition sources,” said Mercier.
“So we take every scenario into account. There might not be a determination of the fire. An undetermined fire is a possibility in any situation. If you have more than one possible hypothesis and they compete, you’re left with an undetermined and that’s just the methodology.”