Cause of massive industrial fire still unknown

“Each product is being analyzed for their specific characteristics. We’re still looking at the products to determine what could have caused the fire, we know where it started, we just don’t know how it started.”

Kivell says about six people were working inside the building when the fire broke out and made it out safely.

“We’re looking at an estimated loss of $9 million, and it may go up,” notes Kivell. “The actual building is a total write-off, all the equipment is a loss. It was an industrial building with 12 bays and approximately 1,856 square metres constructed in 1978.”

Kivell says the fire moved fast.

Connor Whitehouse

“It got into the roof space of the building and quickly spread from one end of the building to the other,” he says. “It was a very unique challenge. It was a fire that never really could have been brought under control, it spread quickly consuming the whole building. Crews had to go into a defensive strategy.”

Ed Delaronde, President of Red Deer Ironworks, says the blaze destroyed one of their three outbuildings at the site but spared two others along with their main office.

“It was primarily paint storage, and we had a recertification facility in there,” says Delaronde. “We’ve already made arrangements and moved the recertification facility into the main building in the centre, so it’s already up and operational. One of our competitors, FMC Technologies lent us some equipment so we could make that turn-key really fast, so we’ve already done that, so it’s fully operational.”

Delaronde admits the loss of oilfield manufacturing equipment is only a short-term pain as most of their manufacturing is done mostly off-site.

“We have nine other locations across North America, so to lose that one storage facility is not the end of the world,” he explains. “We outsource a lot, we’ve got machine shops in Edmonton already replacing everything, as well as the Niagara Falls region and a few operations in the States, so we’re going to recover quite quickly with that.”

In addition, Delaronde says they’ve already leased a facility off-site for their painting operations.

“We’re going to be commencing that tomorrow and we hope to have the mess cleaned-up by Friday,” adds Delaronde. “So it’s going to have minimal impact on our actual business, we will be fully recovered within months. Everything is positive from this moment forward.”

Delaronde says what’s important to note is that no one was hurt.

“Obviously there were some issues there within the paint booth but we did everything right on our end and our operation was deemed safe,” he declares. “We’re looking at rebuilding here right away. I’m actually in the design phase right now of designing a new building and we’re going to commence construction as soon as permits are in place.”

“We want to especially thank Emergency Services of Red Deer for all that they did, they were great people to work with,” continues Delaronde. “And obviously my staff here for coming together as a team and helping with the recovery so quickly and my customers that are willing to be patient with us and are working with us as we rebuild. I’m very proud of everybody involved.”

by Sheldon Spackman

Cause of massive industrial fire still unknown

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