Connor Whitehouse

By Sheldon Spackman/Troy Gillard

homes evacuated as precaution

Red Deer metal shop goes up in flames

Apr 17, 2019 | 12:08 PM

Smoke could be seen for miles after a Red Deer metal shop went up in flames Wednesday morning.

Red Deer firefighters were called to Red Deer Ironworks (6430 Golden West Avenue) at 10:43 a.m. where they found a building at the business engulfed in flames.

“Crews arrived on scene to a significant amount of fire in a bay, if you will,” said Tyler Pelke, Deputy Chief of Operations for Red Deer Emergency Services.

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“Crews attempted to make entry, tried to fight the fire and get their way in but couldn’t make entry due to the volume of heat and smoke. Then it became a defensive fire. So as you see today, quite a bit of thick, black smoke.

“All employees of the business were able to evacuate and (there are) no known injuries at this time,” Pelke adds. “The fire is under investigation.”

According to their website, Red Deer Ironworks produces specialized equipment for the oil and gas sector.

“It was a large machine shop or bay they (crews) tried to get into,” describes Pelke. “No understanding right now of what the origin is. The breeze definitely causing challenges, there was some grass fires, there were some concerns about exposures, so that was one of our first priorities was the neighbouring community or the houses that back onto that.”

Nearby residents of 80 homes on O’Brien Crescent and O’Neil Close were evacuated as a precaution due to the thick, black smoke that billowed but have since been allowed to return home. Other residents in Oriole Park and Oriole Park West are advised to shelter in place.

Red Deer Ironworks tweeted a brief statement regarding the fire…

Pelke commends fire crews and RCMP for doing a tremendous job with evacuations and controlling traffic in the area, in addition to the help they received from Atco Gas.

“Our partners like Atco, those types of agencies, that’s pretty standard so we shut the gas off to that building,” he explains. “But we try not to restrict the flow to other businesses.”

Firefighters will remain on scene into the evening and will be using heavy equipment while they continue working, which will result in varying amounts of smoke into Thursday.