Halifax fire investigation will be 'difficult'

Fire investigators returned to the scene today to begin to figure out how a commercial building in Halifax burned to the ground Sunday.

Pat Kline, acting division commander for Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Service, says they have their work cut out for them.

"Because of the damage to the building, it's going to be hard to do a fire investigation. They'll probably [look at] video from the surrounding buildings. If there is any video evidence they can see what happened from external sources. They'll try to do an investigation to find out a cause," he says.

Kline says crews were first called to 5426 Portland Place, which houses National Art,RCRHospitality Group and Ravensberg College around 7:50 a.m. Sunday. Crews were called back around 2 a.m. Monday to put out a hotspot.

The 14 or so people who were evacuated are now back in their homes.

Bowstring roof a deadly design for firefighters

Kline says the building's design hampered fire crews ability to extinguish the blaze. He said the building was an old curling rink that had what's called a "bowstring" roof.

He says, initially, crews were battling the fire from the inside, but once they realized it was a bowstring roof, they retreated to fight the fire from the outside.

"So they had basically rebuilt the inside of it to like a one-floor level and left a huge, giant, void space above it which, when the fire got up into that, it spread rapidly through the building. They were called out of the building and we went to what's called 'defensive mode' where we fight it from outside where it's too dangerous to have any body in the building because it started to collapse shortly into the fire," says Kline.

Curved, bowstring roofs named for their shape were common on hockey rinks built during the 1930s and 40s. Kline says firefighters have died while fighting fires in these types of buildings so Halifax crews were being extra cautious.

"These things, when they burn, they burn incredible fast and there's been firefighters killed in the States in bowstring construction fires, so we're very careful with them," he says.