‘Heavy smoke throughout the neighbourhood’: Fire crews save former church after blaze near downtown London

Firefighters battle a fire at a former church on Wellington Street in London, Ont.

London Firefighters continue to battle a blaze in a former church near downtown London.

Just after 3 a.m. crews were called to the corner of Wellington and Grey streets for reports of smoke and flames in the rear addition to the building.

“There was heavy smoke throughout the neighbourhood and smoke in the smoke and fire in the building,” said District Chief Ron Prince of the London Fire Department (LFD).

“We started with an offensive attack, but we quickly turned into a defensive attack in about 10 minutes after we arrived. It came through the roof, so we were defensive the rest of the day.”

LFD had two aerial units, six fire pumps through the night and into the morning.

Hours later, they were still knocking out windows with an axe and surveying with an aerial truck as smoke was still visible coming through the walls. A fan was ventilating the front of the building.

While it is no longer an active church, the owner uses the property as a banquet hall, and the entire inside is filled with combustibles.

“The interior of the building is heavily compromised, so you can’t do any interior firefighting,” added Prince.

“We’re trying to get at it from the outside. We’re going to be monitoring it for the better part of today just to make sure that there’s no hot spots that flare up”.

The building is very old with multiple layers of brick and dry wood. Chief Prince says they were able to save the original church, which was the Wellington Street United Church. It was built in 1876, but closed in 2011 when the congregation joined Rowntree Memorial United Church. The property was sold in 2012.

“The fire is at the back and it didn’t actually get into the church itself to the best of my knowledge,” said Prince.

“There’s smoke damage at the front of the building, but the fire was all contained to the rear”.

Police have closed Grey Street between Wellington Street and Waterloo Street and are asking the public to avoid the area.