Blaze incinerates Fort Erie bar

(Update)

Longshots Bar in Fort Erie and the rooming house above it were destroyed by fire Friday morning. Twelve tenants lived in the building. And as Lauran Sabourin reports, all of them have lost almost everything they own.

Thick noxious smoke billowed into the air as firefighters battled to contain this blaze. It gutted Longshots Bar and all the tenant rooms upstairs. The 911 call came in about 10:30 in the morning.

Maintenance Manager T.J. Malhotra was just coming in for work when he saw flames shooting out the side window. “I went in with the police officer because I know the layout of the building just to make sure everybody was out.”

The fire started in an upstairs communal kitchen. It’s believed someone left a pot on the stove.

T.J. says he saw the stove top burning: And the one guy who lives upstairs, he saw it too. And he tried to grab the fire extinguisher. It was too close to the stove. He didn’t think it was safe. So he came down.”

The tenants standing outside, were too upset to talk to us.

Thirty five firefighters, all of them volunteers attacked this fire from all angles. it had spread up into the attic space.

Larry Coplen is a Chief with the Fort Erie Fire Department: “We had crews inside for about an hour. Chasing it through the attic. We decided it was time to go defensive. We pulled the firefighters out. And five minutes later the building collapsed inside”

They had to deal with numerous flare ups. The Longshots building has been here for about a century. It’s just a block up from the peace bridge. The building is destroyed. It has to be torn down. All the people who worked in the bar don’t have a job to go to right now.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do now. Too many thoughts at the moment.”

Now, as mentioned, people have lost their jobs. The tennants got out with just the clothes on their back.  Meanwhile, the Salvation Army and the Red Cross have stepped up to help these people.