Fire crews spent several hours Tuesday morning dealing with a blaze at the Roxy Theatre on 124 Street in Edmonton, a fire that wiped out an historic building and a major venue in Edmonton’s theatre community.

Dozens of fire fighters responded to the area of 124 Street and 107 Avenue, just before 4 a.m., to reports that flames that had engulfed the old building.

Officials at the scene are not reporting any injuries and say they don't believe anyone was inside the theatre when the fire started.

The blaze was declared as under control around 7:30 a.m. For firefighters, the building provided its share of challenges.

“There’s a lot of renovations that have been completed in that building, false walls, and different things like that,” Dave Matwichuk, Edmonton Fire Rescue Services District Chief said.

The Roxy Theatre opened in 1938 and it operated as a movie theatre for decades, before converting to a live performance space in 1989, it had a capacity for 220 people.

Playwright Morgan Smith was to have opened her show 'Cheerleader' this week at the Roxy, Smith told CTV News her team was at the theatre preparing for the show until late Monday evening.

“Still no idea how it happened, we were at the theatre last night until nearly 10 o’clock, painting and getting the set ready for ‘Cheerleaders’,” Smith said.

“It was fine when we left, obviously, but not fine this morning.”

Plans the future performances at the venue, including Nextfest, are still up in the air.

“The Roxy is kind of a cradle for this current generation of theatre artists. Nextfest operates out of the Roxy, and it’s really where a lot of us got our start,” Smith said.

Smith said Edmonton’s theatre community has already shown support for her.

“The wheels are already turning, it’s really an amazing theatre community we have here in Edmonton, and I’m already getting phone calls from and texts from people as far away as New York City,” Smith continued.

“People in Edmonton are making calls for us, trying to find a space for cheerleaders, trying to find costumes for us.”

It wasn’t just the theatre community left reeling after the fire, Tannis Britton lives nearby, and the theatre had a special place in her heart as well – she says she went to a movie for her first date at 14-years-old.

“I’m sad, I cried a little bit when I first came out and saw there was flames,” Britton said.

For Bridget Fitzgerald-Gryschuk, the theatre holds a special place in her heart – her wedding ceremony took place on the Roxy stage eight years before.

“It’s hard to believe, you look behind you and it looks like a war zone or something,” Fitzgerald-Gryschuk said.

“It’s pretty sad…I know that it makes me sad but the people that run it are much more sad than I am; it’s a bigger hit for them, the people that are involved with it every day, I have one memory, they have a million.”

Crews spent much of the day on the scene after the fire was out, and at last word, no damage estimate or cause had been determined.

With files from Susan Amerongen