No injuries following serious fire at Sault residence

Members of the public are being asked to avoid the 100 block of Wellington Street West and Brown Street on Thursday morning, where crews are battling a fire. (Cory Nordstrom/CTV News)

No one was injured in a fire that broke out Thursday morning in the 100 block of Wellington Street West and Brown Street in Sault Ste. Marie.

Deputy fire chief Mark Morgenstern said crews responded around 10 a.m. and were on the scene for much of the day.

“When our first crews arrived, there was heavy flames and heavy smoke, and we’ve been working at it for a couple of hours now and trying to get the fire knocked down,” Morgenstern told CTV News.

“We were unable, based on the conditions, to make a safe entry into the building. So we fought the fire from the exterior, from windows, doors. We’ve cut a few holes in the roof to gain access to the attic, and we feel like we’ve gotten a pretty decent handle on it at this point.”

No one was injured in the fire, officials said, but the building suffered extensive structural damage. The cause is still unknown.

“A few people did come out of the structure as our crews arrived,” Morgenstern said.

He added that four fire trucks and a platoon chief were first on the scene, a total of 16 firefighters.

“We have brought in an extra four at this point to help with some of the cleanup and get some of our front-line trucks back in service to cover the rest of the city,” Morgenstern said.

Trevor Fisher said he witnessed the fire break out.

“I saw some smoke up in the air, up in the skies,” Fisher told CTV News.

“And I looked over and boom, there was that house … just up (in an) inferno … It looked like somebody put a pepper shaker into the air.”

There was a lot of heavy black smoke everywhere, he said, that “was really dirty smelling.”

“All of a sudden, the fire trucks started rolling and they were doing their job.”

Morgenstern added that they’ve begun investigating the cause of the fire and will let the Ontario Fire Marshal know to see whether they have an interest in starting their own investigation. Sault Police are not investigating.