Fire At Earl's Meat Market Contained

Steinbach Fire Fighters on the Roof of Earl's Meat Market

Steinbach Fire Crews have been to Earl's Meat Market a number of times before, and each time it was a false alarm.  People often call the department when they see smoke coming from the back of the building.  The business has a Meat Smoker that is often venting, hence the cause of the smoke.

But not Monday afternoon.

Shortly before 4pm the Fire Department got another report of smoke coming from Earl's but when they arrived this time, they found a working fire in the attic.  Fire Chief Mark Loewen says despite the fact they've been there before, it didn't change their response.

"The fact we've been here a few times before in the past year didn't slow down our response today....and actually today it was a working fire."

Coincidentally, the fire did occur in the area where the Smoker is located but, Loewen could not confirm whether that was the exact cause of the blaze.  The business was closed for the Victoria Day holiday and no one was in the building at the time.

Earl Funk own's the market says panic was his first response when he got the call something was wrong.

"We were just working on our deck in the backyard and we heard the fire engines.  We hear lots of them so, we didn't think much of it and then our daughter called and said 'what's going on at the meat shop?' and, we dropped our tools and ran."

When Funk got there, he saw fire crews tearing off parts of the roof atop the department's new ladder truck.  He's thankful no one was hurt and gave high praise to the department and their newest piece of equipment.

"I'm really thankful for the fire department that we have.  They came, they contained the fire - it's a relatively small fire now.  The ladder truck came in handy, it's the first time it's been used.  I'm so glad that we did buy it for the city.  It created a safer environment for firemen to take care of the roof."

As much as they'd appreciate never having to use the ladder truck, Loewen says it did exactly what it was supposed to do.

"We had it hooked upto a hydrant but we didn't flow water out of it.  You're prepared for it getting obviously quite a bit worse, but the guys got it knocked down quickly.  Right now, we're using it for a platform, a bit of a work area but, if we had to we could have used it for a water stream also."

The Chief had no estimate on damage caused to the building, but Funk says thanks to the quick response of the department, it's not near as bad as it could have been.

"The stuff in the freezers is probably going to be okay.  We're experiencing one of the busiest Mays we've ever had so, as to what they're going to allow us to do, I don't know, we'll have to see."

And Funk would like to get in contact with the person who called the fire in to 9-1-1 so he can thank them personally.

"I would really love if you'd contact us because I really want to give you a big thank you.  The fact that we have a building here, we owe that to everybody involved.  This has been amazing."

The Office of the Fire Commissioner continues to investigate the exact cause of the fire.

(photo submitted by Deborah & Larry Martens)

(photo submitted by daisykrose)