One person was sent to local hospital with unknown injuries following an apartment fire on Edgehill Drive this evening.
Crews were still on scene at 5:45 p.m. on Oct. 1 ensuring the apartment building — located at the base of the Anne Street hill — was safe prior to residents being allowed back inside, said Assistant Deputy Chief Eric MacFadden.
“It was a small fire contained to one unit,” he told BarrieToday, adding the fire occurred on the ninth floor. “One person was in the care of paramedics, (but) I am not sure of the extent of the injuries.
"Fire crews did remove one person from the apartment," MacFadden added.
With a structure of that size, MacFadden said it’s hard to confirm that the entire building was evacuated, but said he expected most of the residents did make their way outside.
“We do have some people in this building that would protect in place due to other issues they might have, and that’s just part of our pre-plan of the building," he said. "For the most part, though, it did appear that quite a few people evacuated.”
At the start of the blaze, five or six trucks responded to the call, said MacFadden, adding that would have been downsized as the nature of the call was determined.
“With a highrise, you need more people with moving equipment up, helping evacuate people and clearing stairwells. It can migrate quite a bit, so with a highrise we need a lot more people," he said.
The cause of the fire is still unknown and remains under investigation.
