Last Saturday, the Boyle Fire Department were called to the scene of a roaring fire in the Athabasca Industrial Maintenance (AIM) building on Elm Drive at 5:07 a.m. The building was completely destroyed by the flames.
Boyle Fire Chief Josh Anderson said his best guess is that the flames had been smoldering for a while before the initial call was made, because by the time the volunteer fire department was on scene 12 minutes after the call was put out, the entire building was lit up.
“We had a 12 minutes’ response time, which is not bad at all for a volunteer fire department at 5 a.m., and by the time we got on scene around 5:19 a.m. the building was completely engulfed in flames,” Anderson said. “At that point it became more of a defensive fire fight to try to keep the flames from spreading and save other building in the area.”
Anderson added that the way the fire crew went at the flames became more of an offensive move to protect the surrounding area.
“It was all an external attack because the building was too engulfed and there were a few explosions from within the building while we were on scene, so I wasn’t going to send my guys in there with all the chemicals,” he said. “Our main concern was keeping the flames away from the combustibles outside the building and keeping the flames from spreading.”
Anderson said the fire department was on hand fighting the flames for seven hours before returning to the fire hall a few blocks over, but they sent another truck back out after to take care of some hot spots that the inspector noticed. The group sent back out was on scene until 5 p.m.
The fire inspector and insurance claims officer are still investigating the cause of the fire and even though the AIM building had a fire in the attic in early December of last year, Anderson said he doesn’t believe the two are related.
“There was a small fire in the attic at the beginning of December but everything was controlled and contained and has been repaired since,” Anderson said. “They actually just finished dealing with the claim on the previous fire and I don’t think there is any correlation between the two. This is a big investigation and the cause has yet to be determined, but the origin of the flames does appear to have been within the building (itself).”
AIM, a fabricating and welding business, was a significant source of taxation income for the Village of Boyle, and the company employed a fair number of people. Village chief administrative officer Charlie Ashbey said he hopes they can recover from this incident.
“They were an important employer in the area and I certainly hope they can rebuild,” Ashbey said. “We appreciate their services and employment in the village.”
