Firefighters from over a dozen departments responded to a fire in Hebbville this afternoon after they received reports of high flames and loud explosions.
The first call came in around noon according to Hebbville Fire Chief Dennis Hynes who said by the time they arrived the building was already fully engulfed.
“When we pulled up we knew there was no saving the building, three-quarters of the building was already engulfed so we quickly worked on controlling the spread of the fire,” Hynes said.
Hebbvile Fire Department Chief Dennis Hynes says the building was fully engulfed by the time they arrived on the scene. Photo: Evan Taylor
The building that caught fire was McCarthy’s Towing & Recovery Ltd. The shop is believed to have contained multiple containers of pressurized gasses which are the likely sources of the explosions that were heard in the area.
A private residence that is just in front of McCarthy’s was also damaged in the fire, with most of the siding that faced the fire being melted off.
No one was injured in the fire or while controlling the blaze as it broke out during the business’s lunch hour.
While no one being in the building was good for everyone’s safety Chief Hynes thinks it is possible the building could have been saved if they were alerted earlier.
“Most of the staff were not in the building for lunch so we think it went unnoticed for a while before someone called us, had someone been there we might have been able to get here earlier and save the building.”
The Hebbville Road (Highway 3) had to be closed for a few hours as firefighters dealt with the blaze but it has since reopened.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
