Moncton Fire battles blazes on John and Clover Streets

A busy weekend for Moncton fire, including two fires in buildings with apartments.

The first on John Street was reported at around 10 am on Saturday.

“I believe it was a six-unit apartment building with a business. We received a report while responding that there were possibly people trapped, and that the RCMP were on scene confirming it. Prior to arrival, we could see smoke in the air, so we knew we had a working fire. Our first truck on scene confirmed that there was smoke on the second and third floors at the rear of the building, and they proceeded directly into the building to see if there was anybody still trapped. “Moncton Fire Platoon Chief Scott Brown explained.

Firefighters determined that there was no one in the building. Brown said the residents managed to escape prior to the department’s arrival on scene.

“Ambulance New Brunswick medics were on scene, and they treated some tenants for smoke inhalation, but did not transport anybody,” Brown stated.

Firefighters were on scene for around two hours. There’s significant damage to at least two units.

Meantime, at around 3 pm the same afternoon, another fire, but this time it was in the garbage room in the underground parking garage of a new four-storey apartment building on Clover Street.

“The first truck in was able to confirm that there was smoke coming out of the back entrance, where you would normally enter the underground parking. They had a separate door to the garbage area, and fire could be seen in some of the garbage receptacles there,” Brown added.

He also stated that normally, there would be challenges with a fire in an underground parking garage. With modern construction and municipal bylaws, the garbage storage area had a separate door, which made their job much easier. Firefighters were able to easily move items from the fire outside.

The fire was contained to the garbage room, and that meant no cars parked in the underground garage were damaged.

“The only damage would be some paint and smoke and water damage to that room and the sprinkler that was activated,” Brown said.