Tenants of a high-rise building in downtown Halifax are dealing with the aftermath of a weekend fire. Several units were evacuated as black smoke billowed out windows on Saturday morning at 1333 South Park Street. At 11:23 a.m., multiple units from Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency were dispatched to respond to the fire. “Upon arrival our crews were faced with heavy black smoke coming from the 6th and 7th floors which were undetermined at the time and once they made entry into the building, they were able to investigate and determined it was the 8th floor,” says Amos Robia, acting deputy chief of Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency. Robia says around 36 firefighters were on scene across 10 units and crews were able to contain the fire to one unit. “When our crews got on scene the fire had breached through the windows. On inspection, there were cracks in the windows in the unit above the fire and a small amount of smoke had infiltrated into that unit. But there was no damage to the unit above,” he said. There was also water damage to a few units below. “It took about 20 minutes for our crews to get to the fire, get to the fire floor, and extinguish the fire and report the fire under control,” says Robia. There were no injuries reported from tenants or firefighters on scene. ‘Le Bistro by Liz’ is located on the main floor of the building and owner Liz Ingram-Chambers says the restaurants closed its doors for the afternoon. “It was a typical day; the fire alarm goes off here quite a bit. First my staff didn’t take it too seriously and then we saw the flames and debris falling down outside the building and so my manager evacuated everybody,” she said. “I came in and stood on the street for an hour or so and watched everything happen. It was devastating and scary all at the same time.” ‘Le Bistro by Liz’ experienced flooding, as well as some electric issues along one side of their restaurant. Ingram-Chambers says they also had to throw out quite a bit of food, but everything was cleaned up in about 5 hours and the restaurant reopened to the public. “It was a pretty surreal situation and we were worried about people in the building. We got into the restaurant because on the ground level we were allowed in here, so we started taking water out to the tenants who were waiting outside,” said Ingram-Chambers . Ingram- Chambers says she is just glad everyone made it out safely and they were able to re-open to provide support to tenants who had to evacuate. “We had about 300 liters of water come through our ceiling in the restaurant, and we were without one of our bathrooms, our back room, everything flooded,” she said. She is not sure of the long-term ramifications and if they are going to have to tear the ceiling apart because of water damage. The cause of the fire is still unknown and the investigation is ongoing. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
