Thursday, February 07, 2013 by: SooToday.com Staff
No details are yet confirmed but eyewitnesses confirm that the Northern Breweries building on the corner of Spring and Bay Streets is on fire.
It was reported to authorities at about 4:30 this afternoon.
Witnesses at the scene are saying the fire is big and there is a lot of heavy smoke coming out of the building and blanketing much of downtown.
It is reported that Bay Street is closed to traffic from Spring to Brock Streets and that Spring Street is closed south of Queen Street.
Northern Breweries, the Sault's hometown brewery, has been vacant since late summer of 2006, shortly after its last President and Chief Operating Officer resigned.
A series of break-ins at the defunct breweries seemed to be the only action in the building until it became a hot topic in 2010.
Unfortunately, the city was unable to clear the title on the land in time to close a $511,000 deal to sell it in September, 2010.
The property and building was then conveyed to the City of Sault Ste. Marie for non-payment of municipal taxes.
It languished for another year until, amidst great fan fare, a grand new plan to tear down the building and put up an $80 million 200-unit condo and commercial tower was announced by Gateway Properties Inc. in September 2011.
The timeline announced at that time would have seen demolition begin the following spring and ground-breaking for the tower, which included five subfloors of parking on the waterfront, take place around December 2012.
Repeated attempts by SooToday.com to find anyone even remotely related to Gateway Properties Inc. have come up dry and rumours abound that the company has gone bankrupt.
The only evidence of any demolition in the building has been a pick up truck apparently belonging to a contractor parked in front of the door on occasion.
That and regular reports of break and enters to the main brewery building.
However, according to an article published in Sault This Week last week, Gateway Properties Inc. is still alive and well.
The article states that Gateway will be moving ahead with demolition of the building in March.
Or that was the plan until today, at least.
SooToday.com will have more on this developing story as information becomes available.
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I wouldn't think there was any live power to that place. So I agree the squatters got careless. So are they going to build that rediculous twister building the east indians were after. Why in this city we'll never know. Sounds like it was going to be the eighth wonder of the world. Stranger things have happened :)
Think Constance is a little off his/her rocker..the only building between Northern Brewies and Roberta Bondar is the Chamber of Commence building and its not on fire. Take a look at the pictures..
Wow, I was walking down by the waterfront with my kids and dog and could not see the small building, got my kids home and seeing the news, I was mistaken, hope they get it under control.......
I sat behind the Queens Center for about an hour watching the action. Well for what action there was. A lot of fire trucks, a lot of police cars, a lot of interest from the public but the fire burned for some time before they started putting water to it.
Kind of appeared they were letting it burn and monitored it so didn't get out of control. And yes, it was just the smaller office section of the brewery that was on fire and seemed they were making sure it didn't spread to the larger building. Finally they got two ladder trucks into place and started putting water from above the roof.
Well so much for our empty landmark. I'm sure the city will urge the owner to make sure demolition goes ahead as planned now. Won't be anything left for squatters to hide in that's for sure.
Funny how this was the most excitement the city's had in a while. I think our political leaders should really get some thinking going if this makes the "interest for the evening" list.
Whew! That smell. What is burning in there??? I can smell it from where I am and it is putrid. Bonfire smell mixed with chemically smell. Hope there isn't asbestos going up in smoke.
And wouldn't be asbestos burning, asbestos is a fire resistant material but I'm sure there were other materials stored in there that weren't suppose to be burned. That smoke earlier was really thick and brownish. At least the wind is taking it toward the river...minimal smoke infiltration.
I think if there was any danger breathing in that smoke, all the fire crew would be wearing breathing apparatuses. There are lots of them there without any.
The FD SHOULD be wearing SCBA's. I know that place still had many chemicals in it. Regeants, polar and non polar solvents, heavy metals. There's mercury in there, ammonia, sulphuric, hydrochloric and other acids. Quite a few of them were located in a locker in the office area. There are also remanants of several experiments in labs scattered around the building. Now this is all going a couple years back, but I pretty much guarantee it was all there, because I have heard nothing of any clean-up operations going on down there, and I'd like to see some documents backing up anybody's "proof" that it was cleaned properly.
Wouldn't some of that stuff blow up........ and why would they let bystanders stand there. I'm sure the fire department would know if there were any storage of chemicals in there..... if not, then they were highly negligent in allowing people to stand there breathing in toxic chemicals. Which I doubt they were negligent.
Ok... NONE of the chemicals I listed were explosive. A chemical doesn't have to be explosive to pose a threat to our air and waterways. And yes, they were in there. We would have heard of any clean up operations underway if there had been any. Hell, I can even tell you what chemicals they were, and what company manufactured them if you give me a day to find the information.
Well then, I would certainly notify the fire department so proper environmental clean up can be done, so no harm is done to anyone or anything. Let them know what you know ! There are hundred of gallons of water out there now seeping into the ground , possibly filled with contaminates.
Just leave them a voicemail, and that you are away for the day and a contact number. Either that or the city police would have a contact number for someone at a fire hall :)
The FD should be aware of what chemicals and hazardous materials are in that building. They have "Pre-Plans" for most major building, especially industrial and commercial buildings, that include floor plans and inventories.
I was at Docks watching for a while (downwind ugh) and it was brown thick smoke that burned my eyes and I could taste it, tasted like chemical so I got the heck out of there.
When I got home I put my jacket in the hall and when I walked by the hall an hour later it REEKED! I couldn't believe it. I had to put everything I was wearing in the washing machine to soak for a while to get rid of the stench. Jacket, jeans, shirt, all had that really strong stench, but my jacket smelled the strongest.
Personally I think the guys fighting that fire should NOT have been breathing that in.
The fire dept is aware that there are chemicals in thier, and yes they are still in there. They don't know all of the chemicals completely but are more concerned with the fire. As well most of the chemicals arn't acually a huge threat while bring burned, they are a threat to the enviorment especially if allowed to be soked into the ground but thats it. Weather they will do a proper cleaning of the area and the chemicals is a good guess of anyone. A lot if enviorment cost have been cut in the last 2 years so they might acually leave it. Sad really.
So many expert firemen and experts on chemicals on sootoday! You'd think if they were really experts they would be doing something other than sitting on Sootoday comments.
Anyone who felt the need to remain in the area while this incident took place I hope you feel it was worth it. I can only imagine what cancer causing materials you inhaled waiting to get that perfect picture....good luck with that
how pathetic that people have nothing better to do with their time but play the know it all on every story posted here. Let's have some compassion for the firmen working this blaze. Think of their well being instead of bad mouthing and assuming the most idiotic perceptions. Why do the people who hate it here still live here? Please, don't tell me you can't get out...I won't believe any excuse you tell me!
notsoclevernickname... There actually were clean-ups done in there (mercury, etc...) along with core samples taken at various areas for the MOE. Why would you think you would be notified with regards to the clean-up??? I don't believe it's newsworthy.
@rcssm69 It's called transparency. When the vat of ammonia polluting the area came to light a few years ago, everyone knew about it and was talking about it. (At least in my circles.) Again, I restate, if there was a clean up, there would be an open call for bids to take the clean up job, or some record of it being forwarded on.
While I don't have documentation, I can assure you that some clean-up measures were indeed done including the mercury spill. This is going back to the summer of 2011 and it was observed. There more than likely weren't any bids, since private industry doesn't necessarily have a purchasing policy requiring a bidding policy.
Note: Comments that appear on the site are not the opinion of SooToday.com. Keep discussions civil and on topic. Refrain from obscenity and don't post anything that your grandmother would be ashamed to read. Those who do not abide by these guidelines will have their membership revoked without notice. If you see an abusive post, please click the link beside the post to report it.
No details are yet confirmed but eyewitnesses confirm that the Northern Breweries building on the corner of Spring and Bay Streets is on fire.
