At about 6:28 a.m. on Monday, on First Avenue Northwest right next to Mosaic Place, Moose Jaw Fire Department responded to a large fire.
Chief Garth Palmer said 10 firefighters responded with a “fast attack” from the building’s interior.
However, as of about 8 a.m. crews switched to a straight defense mode, trying to contain the blaze and prevent it from spreading.
Palmer said he had received no report of injury or missing persons from the incident as of Monday morning.
Moose Jaw’s Ryan Burton first came across the blaze at about 7:30 a.m. on Monday. As the morning progressed, he said it just got worse and worse.
“It’s just mind blowing,” he said, adding he has a couple of friends who live in the building’s apartments — or at least did until Monday.
Aside from the horror of the fire itself, Burton worries about the aftermath. Specifically, he told the Times-Herald he is concerned about his friends and other people who need affordable places to live in a city with an already low vacancy rate, which on Monday just lost some more living accommodations.
“Where are those guys going to go?”
This wasn’t the first old building Curtis Pruden has seen consumed by fire during his several years in Moose Jaw.
“I’ve lived here all my life and I’ve seen a lot go up just like this,” he said while watching the fiery spectacle from across High Street West on Monday.
Pruden said it is unfortunate for such a fire to occur, although such fires seem to be a fact of life.
For more on this story, read an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
