Three firefighters are in hospital under observation after battling a three-alarm fire in the area of Wagner Road and 83 Street.
Fire crews received the call just after 1:30 p.m. on Saturday and a team of 27 firetrucks and 108 firefighters were able to get it under control just before 5 p.m.
Witnesses driving past the scene said they could see the smoke from the road and pulled over after flames shot out from the roof.
“It probably got to like 20, 30 feet something like that. It was really, really high," Echo Peters said. "There was lots of smoke, but you could see the flames coming out."
The flames grew so intense firefighters became surrounded while fighting the fire from a lift. Echo said she could feel the heat from where they were standing, in the middle of the school yard across the road.
Grant Stewart, the owner of a Stewart's Tire, a business adjacent to the blaze, said he was convinced his building was on fire.
With hundreds of tires and an irreplaceable Edmonton Eskimos collection inside, he said he didn't know whether he was going to cry or be sick. Stewart was watching the fire out the back of his shop before he was evacuated.
“We saw the wall crack and one of the firefighters told us to get back, for starters, and then we were in the bay door and then they said ‘close the doors, out of the way cause it’s coming down,'” Stewart said. “So we actually shut the doors, looked through the windows and saw the entire wall ... It was like a bomb went off. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
Stewart’s shop was spared, but at least one business has been destroyed. People familiar with the area said that the building affected was an office supply shop.
The fire is under investigation.
Crews told CTV News they plan to remain on scene throughout the night.
With files from Nicole Weisberg.
