Fire rips through apartment building
Tenants safe after fire rips through Kentville apartment building
Two firefighters stand atop the aerial ladder as they spray a mixture of water and foam below the building’s roof to help smother persistent hotspots. Kentville firefighters were called to a fire at a three-storey apartment building on Parkview Road in the town on May 22.
No tenants or pets were injured after a Kentville apartment building caught fire May 22.
The Kentville Volunteer Fire Department responded to an apartment fire at 10:18 a.m. that was called in from the 12-unit apartment complex on Parkview Road in Kentville.
The building sustained significant damage on its upper floors and left side where the fire was seen burning at its highest intensity.
Building tenant Sijo Jose, from India, was inside his secondfloor apartment watching TV when he suddenly felt heat and noticed a fire had started inside his unit.
His various identification certificates were all inside the unit, he said as he stood outside and watched as firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze.
“It just suddenly happened – I don’t know how. This just happens sometimes, and everything I have is inside there,” he said.
Kentville Fire Chief Ryan Maceachern confirmed all tenants exited the building safely before the flames spread. Firefighters were still working at 10:30 a.m. to search for pets, eventually finding both cats they’d been searching for and returning them to their owners.
“They’re doing double searches for pets, and hopefully they were in apartments that weren’t affected,” he said.
Firefighters used axes to break through windows to let heat outside the building. A hose was also used inside to keep water spraying onto hotspots as smoke continued pouring out of the building.
Once the fire was contained, two firefighters stoop atop an aerial ladder to spray a mixture of water and foam onto the building to help smother more hotspots.
Area resident Robert Wallace was one of several bystanders taking in the scene as firefighters continued working on the fire. Wallace, who’s lived on Parkview Road for eight years, said he’d never seen anything like this happen before.
“You hear the sirens, and you just hope it’s not your house. It’s normally so quiet here – we don’t hear anybody coming or going,” he said.
Mutual aid was provided by Wolfville, Canning and New Minas fire departments, and the power company also arrived at the scene to cut power to the building.
The fire was confirmed to be fully extinguished at 11:41 a.m., and an investigation into what caused it is currently underway.