St. Thomas fire battles inferno at abandoned warehouse

The former Weatherhead Company of Canada Limited plant caught fire early Monday afternoon, prompting a significant response from the St. Thomas Fire Department.

The St. Thomas Fire Department battling a raging fire in the city on Monday afternoon

The former Weatherhead Company of Canada Limited plant caught fire early Monday afternoon.

Fire Chief Dave Gregory says they had a full callback of firefighters, “This had a really good head start on us, but luckily, we’ve got probably 50 to 60 firefighters here today. We have the full-time guys and we still have the city protected at this point.”

An aerial truck is helping to douse the building with water, as St. Thomas police controls a large crowd of onlookers.

The fire department is advising all residents north of Edward Street to close their windows, as wind from the south is pushing heavy smoke into the area.

“It’s a double warehouse fire. We got multiple calls still coming in because I guess you can see it from London,” said St. Thomas Fire Prevention Officer Shannon Ashton.

They have also shut down the CN Rail line for the night as hoses are spread across the tracks to support firefighting efforts.

Gregory added that police were first on scene, and nobody was believed to be in the building at the time that the fire started.

They are now working to prevent the fire in the abandoned warehouse from spreading to the current Canadian IPG Corporation building.