Fire engulfs Saskatoon plastics manufacturing business
Firefighters unable to enter building due to flames, smoke
Firefighters worked all day and into the late afternoon on Wednesday at the scene of a blaze that engulfed a plastics manufacturing facility in Saskatoon's north end.
The call came in at 5:17 a.m. CST, according to a news release from Saskatoon's fire department. When crews arrived at the fire at WD Plastics on 56 Street E., there was already heavy black smoke pouring from the building.
Firefighters were unable to enter the building due to the smoke and flames, Deputy Chief Rob Hogan said in an interview.
"They tried to do an exterior attack. Unfortunately, it looks like the fire had spread through quite a bit of the building," he said.
"The building is a plastics manufacturing plant. It houses a lot of resins, a lot of plastic sheets, a lot of plastic material."
No one was in the building when the fire started, and no injuries were reported.
By late morning, there were six engines and two ladder trucks on scene, as well as more than 30 personnel.
Strong winds from the southeast caused some difficulty for the firefighters in terms of their aerial apparatus — but on the positive side, it dissipated the heavy black smoke and blew it north of the city, Hogan said.
Crews were expected to remain on site well into evening, working to extinguish three main hot spots, the fire department said in a later news release.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, but the building is expected to be a total loss.
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