It's still smouldering this AM at 0530 when I went by on way to gym. KF&R is still on the scene and probably will be for a while. The area around the site is off limits and Princess St. is closed at Confusion Corner because of the fear that the crane's pedestal may have been weakened by the fire.
I passed it yesterday on my way home from work, about 30 mins after the first alarm was struck. KF&R was there with just about everything that they have: Gananoque and South Frontenac FDs were just arriving as I drove by on Brock St, one block over.
I have never, ever, seen anything like it: it was an inferno. Hats off to the firefighters who tackled that one. It was a monster: a big four storey wooden frame apartment building under construction, a good city block long, just totally engulfed and roaring.
It was a very complicated fire scene: a busy street in an older, fairly dense residential and commercial district with a gas station right across the street, a retirement home right beside the involved structure, and homes, businesses and a motel immediately adjacent. From what I could tell, the fire spread so fast that the firefighting operation had to be defensive for quite a while until the structure burned down some and then collapsed. There was also a fear of either natural gas or propane explosion.
The City emergency management plan seems to have gone well: the area was evacuated, including the senior's home and a public school, and an emergency shelter was set up at the Olympic Harbour Centre. KF&R, the mutual aid FDs, KPF, transit, utilities, Red Cross, etc all seem to have done a fantastic job.
The save by the 424 Griffon crew and the SAR tech was unbelievable: the stuff of movies. If there had been a gas explosion or flare-up in the structure below, the aircraft would have been in danger. Amazing work.
And amazingly, not one injury!
Bless them all.
) 
