Fire at Jasper Place business under control; building being torn down

A fire in the Jasper Place neighbourhood sent plumes of smoke up over west Edmonton Friday morning.

Flames were visible when CTV News Edmonton arrived on scene at 155 Street and Stony Plain Road around 6:30 a.m.

Edmonton Fire Rescue Services says it had been reported about one hour earlier. A second alarm was called just after 6 a.m., calling to the scene a total of 13 crews.

Smoke pours out of Times Square XXX, an adult entertainment store in Edmonton's Jasper Place neighbourhood, on April 14, 2023.

"I just got woke up at 5:30 and place was already filled with smoke already, so woke up coughing and then I went out the back to see what was going on and the firefighters were already instructing us to leave… At least it's not freezing, though, right?" a next-door resident who was watching from the street, Shawn Kelly, told CTV News Edmonton.

Throughout the morning, firefighters concentrated their efforts on preventing the fire from spreading beyond Times Square XXX, an adult entertainment store.

Smoke pours out of Times Square XXX, an adult entertainment store in Edmonton's Jasper Place neighbourhood, on April 14, 2023.

"The fire crews entered the building initially, but conditions inside the building caused them to retreat out of the building because of the heavy thick black smoke and instability of the ceiling. So at that point, we switched our fire attack to a defensive mode and called a second alarm to get additional resources," explained District 4 fire chief Bruce Kaminski.

"This particular building was very compartmentalized and there was a lot of areas we had difficulty accessing, so as a result, we did an exterior fire attack using our fire trucks from the ceiling and fought the fire from above."

Firefighters spray water on the rear side of Times Square XXX in Edmonton's Jasper Place neighbourhood on April 14, 2023.

The fire was only considered under control as of noon. At that point, fire investigators had not been inside the building yet.

No injuries had been reported and no other buildings were damaged by the fire, but Kelly was concerned about the condition of his apartment.

"Is there going to be smoke damage upstairs? Will I go to work and come back and hopefully everything will be fine when I get home?" he wondered.

By the early afternoon, plans were being made to pump out the water from the store's basement and a track hoe had been brought into tear down some of its walls.

The storefront of Times Square XXX, destroyed by a fire on April 14, 2023, is seen in this photo.

"Bye bye, porn store," Kelly said. "Place is kind of a creepy place anyway." 

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Nicole Lampa and Evan Klippenstein