Barely dried out from damaging flood waters which left a portion of the building closed, 44 1st Avenue North has crumbled following an evening fire Thursday.
Home to four local businesses - Heiser's Health & Fitness; Shear Bliss Salon; Wax Pot Esthetics; and a nutritional supplement business - all will remain closed at the location until the completion of an investigation.
"A call came in at approximately 10 p.m. Thursday night reporting a fire at Heiser's gym," details Yorkton Fire Chief Dean Clark, adding the department responded, initially entering the building offensively, but then taking the defensive mode.
"In the fire service we have three modes of attack. Offensive means we go in and aggressively fight the fire. Defensive means there is a real risk not only to the people within but to the firefighters putting out the fire so we fight the fire from the outside. A marginal attack is a combination of both and usually involves the transition from offensive to defensive. We made the best call we could," says Clark adding the building was filled with heavy smoke.
"We called in every member of the fire department to help with the blaze. We also called the Melville Fire Department to help protect the city as well. The fire was pretty much contained to the second floor. There was no visible fire damage on the main floor." There was however substantive smoke and water damage throughout due to fire fighting efforts.
In the days following the fire security has been monitoring the building which has been cordoned off from the public. Clark says the measure is standard procedure to ensure the integrity of the investigation (which was expected to wrap up Wednesday) and maintain public safety.
Once an investigation is complete, the facility will be in the hands of its insurance company, which will decide whether to tear down the structure or restore a portion of it.
With the cause yet to be determined, Clark says "what's going to happen is we are going to knock down the second floor... it does pose a safety risk... after that the decision will be made to whether save what's left of the building..." This would involve engaging structural engineers and the city building department to ensure safety.
Clark says he would like to thank the firefighters, the RCMP, the Office of the Fire Commissioner, the Melville Fire Department, Crestvue Ambulance, Pride Security and all those who have assisted with the matter. "They've been just fantastic," he states.
