The North Bay Fire Department is still on hand downtown putting out a fire.

Chief Jason Whiteley says the fire is believed to be suspicious.

“We’re putting hot spots out. We’ve worked with the building department to put out a order for safety. we’ve brought on a structural engineer to assess and will be tearing down the facade,” he says.

He says one firefighter suffered frostbite and was taken to hospital for treatment and is now resting at home.

Whiteley says they will be hanging around for several hours yet.

“We’re still watching the fire. We’ll have a crew overnight to ensure there are no more flareups,” he says.
Crews were dispatched to the 100 block of Oak Street around 12:30 this morning.

The building housed the former Sushi Island restaurant location on the Main Street side — and spread to the building next door which housed the nurse practitioner clinic.

That clinic is now closed but patients who have appointments can go to the clinic in West Ferris.

Jaymie-Lynn Blanchard, the Clinic Director told BayToday they hope to rebuild at the present downtown site.

She says they chose that site because it’s centrally located downtown and patients are able to get to it.

Whiteley says the building suffered smoke and water damage.

Oak and Main between Ferguson and Wyld remain closed for now.

Meantime, MPP Vic Fedeli expects it’ll be January before they can re-open his Main Street constituency office.
It’s right next door to the buildings destroyed by fire this morning and his office has smoke and water damage, and broken windows.
“I would suggest we’ll likely be back in in January, our staff will continue to work from home on all of the case files that they’re managing right now for our various constituents, that work will continue,” he says.
Fedeli says once they’re able to assess things in the office, they’ll have a better idea of what their immediate future will look like.

(photos by station staff)

 

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