Too early to tell if Lefebvre's Main St. building can be saved

The Ontario Fire Marshals office has been called in after fire has destroyed the downtown heritage building.

North Bay Fire and Emergency Services crews were called to a structure fire at Lefebvre's Source for Adventure/Vested Interest Building at 122 Main St. W. Tuesday evening.

Firefighters from all three stations responded to the call shortly after 8pm and arrived to find smoke and flames visible.

Crews located the fire and immediately began to attack it.

“We have all three stations here right now,” says Deputy Fire Chief Brian Hunt.

“And we have people called back in to man the other truck and the other stations. And we’ve got crews here assisting to rotate.”

Hunt says the fire is stubborn and for hours now firefighters have been attacking the blaze from all points trying to knock it down and to keep it from spreading to adjoining buildings.

“A lot of it is to do with the location of the fire just trying to get at it and we have a significant amount of fire load in there so it’s very, very stubborn and tough to get at.”

He says it is too early to say if the building can be saved.

The adjoining buildings do have smoke and water damage.

“It would be really, really hard to say at this time, it really is.”

“Until we have it completely out and we get in there and have a good look, if we can, we’ll know better then but for now it’s too early to say.”

“I mean that’s fairly typical of any building like that so what it’s going to take is time and it’s going to take a lot of water.”

Hunt says the crews are using Thermal Imaging Cameras all night to ensure they are hitting all the hot spots.

“The guys are working pretty diligently at it.”

“Right now we’re just letting the building vent out, we’ve got crews at the back and crews at the front, we’re containing it to this area.”

“We’ll be here as long as it takes … It’s going to be a long night.”

Sources tell BayToday that the fire broke out shortly after 8pm when a passerby heard the alarms sound and then witnessed a window blow out of the 122 Main St. W. store.