Fire Chief says second Midas fire deemed suspicious

For the second time in 2021, North Bay Fire crews were dispatch to battle a blaze at the former Midas auto repair shop on Main Street East today. 

Two stations responded to the call. 

Fire Chief Jason Whiteley told BayToday that they believed someone had access to the Midas building which was partially destroyed in a fire back in late February.  

See related from February: Midas downtown fire handed over to Fire Marshal

Once they knew that the fire crew's priority was a search and rescue and according to Whiteley, no one was found inside the damaged building.  

See also: Fire chief gives update on second Midas fire (VIDEO)

The fire is however deemed to be suspicious in nature as firefighters had the fire which appeared to start in the roof around 2:30 Monday afternoon.

Whiteley says the fire was under control before 3:15 p.m.   

The February 22 fire at the same location sent two employees to the hospital with injuries and caused a large portion of the downtown core to shut down due to all the heavy toxic smoke coming out of the car garage while firefighters battled the stubborn blaze.