Red Deer fire-medics were called out to fight a smouldering rooftop blaze on a downtown office building Friday evening.
Red Deer Emergency Services responding to a fire alarm were on scene with their first truck about 6:45 p.m. The first crew on scene soon spotted smoke and made their way to the roof of the four-storey office building at 4406 Gaetz Ave. from inside.
“They found an area where there wasn’t a lot of flame, but there was some smouldering going on and smoke coming from it,” said platoon chief Randy Kidd. “The smoke had been drawn into the building that’s why they noticed smoke on the way up to the roof.”
“There was a fair bit of smoke, but there wasn’t much in the way of flames.” The fire was knocked down by 7:20 p.m.
There was no one inside the building when the fire broke out.
The southbound lanes of Gaetz Avenue were blocked off by police while the fire was cleaned up.
Fire investigator Al Robichaud said the blaze is believed to be connected to some roofing work that has been going on for the past couple of days, but the exact cause is still under investigation. No damage estimate was available.
One firefighter was taken to hospital to be examined after falling ill.
“We sent one of our firefighters to the hospital, just as a precaution,” said Kidd. “It was a heat exhaustion-type injury we think.”
Two pumpers and the Bronto with its 40-metre extending ladder were brought in to deal with the fire. The rooftop was sprayed down and fire-medics could be seen tearing up chunks of the roofing.
“They’re exposing the area to make sure there isn’t any more fire under the roof surface,” said Kidd.
The office building is home to a number of businesses including Royal LePage Patrician, The Co-operators insurance and a dentist’s office.