Fire crews spent the weekend battling fierce flames that gutted two buildings and damaged two others in Saint John.
Crews were called to Mecklenburg Street around 2 a.m. Sunday after a fire started in a vacant building uptown.
The flames then jumped to an apartment building next door, forcing 16 people from their homes.
“Some of them were in varying degrees of disbelief and shock, some of them very excitable,” says Nelson Watkins, community response co-ordinator for the Salvation Army. “When we got together here the first thing was to get them onto a city bus, just to get them off the street, and into a shelter.”
“It’s pretty gruesome inside,” says Robert Carter, who lives nearby. “But at least no one was hurt. That’s the main thing.”
Fire Platoon Chief Kevin Forrest says freezing temperatures made it difficult for crews to fight the flames.
“We have problems of hose lines freezing, slippery conditions, frozen hydrants and getting the occupants into warm buildings,” he says.
Half of the street was without power for most of the day.
The fire destroyed the two buildings and two nearby homes suffered smoke and water damage.
The Saint John Fire Department is investigating the cause of the fire.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Ashley Dunbar
