Fire crews were called to First Red Deer Place to a report of smoke on the main floor on Tuesday morning.
It took crews less than two hours to locate the source of the smoke, a filter in one of the building’s air handling unit. There was smoke primarily the first floor, but also the second floor and basement of the ATB Financial Building on 51st Street in downtown Red Deer. The call came in of a report of a structure fire around 10:30 a.m.
The five-storey commercial building was evacuated as a precaution.
“The goal was to try to identify where the smoke was coming from,” said Damian LaGrange, Red Deer Emergency Services acting deputy chief of operation. “These operations to take a while and we always ask for people’s patience. We have to make sure we do a search of the entire building to identify the source and to make sure we don’t miss anything.”
There were no reported injuries.
Red Deer Emergency Services remained at the site to vent the building of smoke.
LaGrange said the smoke clearing took about an hour.
“They want to make sure the environment is nice and clear for people to safely get back in the building,” said LaGrange.
Traffic north bound on 49th Avenue was reduced to one lane, while both directions of 51st Street were blocked off in front of the building during the incident.
mcrawford@reddeeradvocate.com
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