Two firefighters were taken to hospital Tuesday after being injured fighting a fire at St. Albert Centre.
St. Albert Fire Services got a call about a fire at St. Albert Centre at about 2:20 a.m. on Tuesday June 10, fire marshal Mike Bos said. Due to the mall’s size, 20 firefighters from all three of the city’s fire halls responded, bringing three engines, a rescue truck, and a tower/ladder truck to the scene.
On arrival, fire crews saw that a fire in a long blue dumpster on the south side of the mall had spread to the nearby Hudson’s Bay loading dock. Crews contained the blaze and kept it from spreading to the rest of the mall.
“The rapid intervention saved the building,” Bos said, keeping this small fire from becoming a large one.
Bos said two firefighters were injured fighting the fire and were taken to Sturgeon Community Hospital with minor injuries. They have since been treated and released. He had no damage estimate for the fire, but said it did blow some smoke into the Hudson’s Bay outlet.
Fire crews were still on scene at the mall Tuesday afternoon investigating the cause of the fire.
In an email, St. Albert Centre general manager Jillian Creech said firefighters managed to contain the fire to the mall’s exterior, leaving its interior undamaged.
“Tenants nearer to the Hudson’s Bay may currently be able to smell an odour as a result of the fire retardant used,” she said, adding that DKI Sparklean Restoration had deployed air scrubbers to remove the smell.
Creech said mall staff were thankful that emergency crews were able to minimize the damage from the fire.
“Thanks to the quick action of emergency services and DKI, it is business as usual.”
