Fire engulfs former Mr. Used
Multiple-alarm fire at empty Barton Street East warehouse
The Office of the Fire Marshal was called in to investigate a massive blaze Friday that engulfed a large Barton Street East warehouse formerly home to Mr. Used.
Fire crews arrived at 984 Barton St. E. — a vast warehouse that stretches a city block in both directions east of Gage Avenue North — shortly after 11 a.m.
Fire Chief Dave Cunliffe said first crews on scene witnessed heavy smoke and flames breaking through the roof of the building.
Firefighters were initially able to get into the two-storey structure to commence a search before they were called back because of the fire’s fast spread. Multiple portions of the building have since collapsed.
Cunliffe said 16 fire trucks and crews from across Hamilton attended the scene. Three “aerial operations” were deployed to douse the fire from a higher vantage point.
Jennifer Pardiac, a resident of the area for about 40 years, was leaving a Tim Hortons just steps from the warehouse when she saw charcoalblack smoke shooting from the top floor “like a tunnel.”
Pardiac’s daughter, who was with her in the car, immediately called 911 but “couldn’t get through because so many people on the street were calling.”
By the time crews arrived, Pardiac said a woman came running out of the back of the burning building.
“She told them there was another person still sleeping on the top floor,” she said.
Cunliffe, who spoke to reporters at 1 p.m., said crews didn’t believe there was anyone in the building and that there have been no reports
of injuries. He added that the fire department had been in the building a month ago and it was empty.
Three neighbours who live close to the warehouse said a number of homeless people often take refuge inside on the top floor.
“It’s a dead-end street there,” said one man who refused to be identified, referring to Belview Avenue, a side-street adjacent to the building.
“No one should be going inside because there’s nothing there, but they still go.”
One couple, who have lived directly in front of the warehouse for two years, said it’s been “abandoned for a while … There’s always activity there with the homeless (population).”
The blaze remained burning as of late Friday afternoon and shuttered Barton between Rosslyn Avenue North and Cavell Avenue for several hours. Plumes of smoke emanating from the building could be seen throughout the city.
The fire did not spread to neighbouring buildings in the mostly industrial area. One HSR bus waited at the corner of Barton and Avondale Street as a precaution if the area needed to be evacuated.
The former Mr. Used, a warehouse business where customers could buy, sell and trade just about anything, closed in 2015 after 30 years of business.
It harvested Hamilton’s unusual pre-owned goods since 1982, when it was opened by Len Wareing, who was described as shrewd and generous in The Spectator in 2005. He died at age 70 in 2015.
The year of his death, Wareing told The Spectator that sales had slipped and it was “costing me money to stay open.”