An old, heavily damaged, abandoned building in the north end of Halifax is getting torn down.
It was last weekend when a section of the Bloomfield school site was destroyed by a fire.
Now, HRM tells us work was done Wednesday to remove the “unstable walls of the affected building”, and parts of Agricola Street were closed for several hours to help accommodate.
The school has been vacant for years with concerns that have been raised over its safety.
It was overnight on Saturday when the 3rd alarm fire broke out that required over 50 firefighters and support members on scene.
They battled the blaze for hours in frigid conditions.
A heartfelt ‘thank you’
Fire Chief Ken Stuebing is expressing sincere gratitude to everyone who helped fight the fire.
In a statement, he thanks everyone for their “exceptional efforts”.
Crew members not only responded to this fire, but many other calls during the stormy weekend.
“In challenging and arduous conditions, our crews worked tirelessly for several hours to contain the fire and prevent further damage to the surrounding buildings for the Bloomfield incident,” Stuebing says.
He adds, the work would not have been possible without the logistics team, Platoon Captains, investigators, command teams and roster coordinator.
“I am incredibly proud of the teamwork to ensure safety and protection of the neighborhood and our partnering responding agencies, as well as firefighter safety.”
Union calling for more resources
After the challenging weekend, Halifax firefighter’s union says they need more resources.
President of the Halifax Professional Fire Fighters Brendan Meagher tells us because the fire required so many crew members, it put a huge dent in their services.
“Our daily staffing compliment from Sheet Harbour and Tantallon to Upper Sackville to Eastern Passage, is 101 people. There were 44 of those at this one incident. I think that in itself shows what a challenge fire protection and keeping communities safe during a large-scale incident like a fire in this one building in Halifax posed to us.”
Meagher says they not only need more staff but more facilities as well.
The fire remains under investigation.
