Key takeaways:
- Workers at the recycling firm got out safely and called 911 after finding a pile of debris on fire.
- A few of the 140 firefighters on-site had to be treated for warmth exhaustion.
Around 150 firefighters struggled to get the upper hand on a five-alarm fire in Montreal East during the blaze on Sunday.
Two of them had to minister for minor wounds, one for warmth exhaustion and another for an injury, stated Mathew Griffith, a fire boss with the Montreal fire unit.
The fire unit got a call around the fire inside a recycling firm building at 10930 Sherbrooke Street East around 10:30 a.m.
Three employees were inside at the time and got out safely. Griffith stated the call came in after one spotted a blaze in a stack of objects prepared to be recycled.
“The fire spread through different furs in the building; it’s a large industrial-type facility,” he said.
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He said that the firm had gone out of business and was no longer in process, and workers had been on site retrieving materials that could still be recovered.
Sunday evening, the roof and a partly collapsed barrier had stopped firefighters from entering the building.
“It’s a very persistent fire because it’s piles of debris, and because of the partial collapse, we are in a defensive mode not sending any person inside the structure,” Griffith said, adding it’s difficult to know how long the fire will take to put out.
Over the afternoon, plumes of smoke could be seen billowing from the plant from as far as Boucherville.
Authorities set up an extensive safety perimeter in the area. Griffith said that environmental officers with the federal and regional governments are also on-site monitoring the air quality.
Source – cbc.ca
