Downtown Farnham was the site a major fire on Monday morning. The fire ravaged through four attached buildings. The firefighters were called to the scene at 10:30 a.m. There were nearly 70 firefighters from the Farnham, Cowansville, Bromont, Bedford, Notre-Dame-de-Stanbridge, Ange-Gardien and Sainte-Brigide-d’Uberville departments participated in the intervention. The first ones arrived on the scene within minutes of the call.
When asked if the buildings affected would be salvageable, Farnham Fire Department’s acting director, Patrick Morin, said, “I would be very surprised if any of the buildings could be repaired.”
This leaves the Marc Robitaille jewelry store, the Shillelagh Irish pub, and the CSL Industriel workwear store having to be demolished as well as the apartment building adjoining the stores that was also destroyed by the fire, bringing the total losses to over $1 million and leaving 20 tenants without a home.
Firefighters were using water from the river behind the affected buildings to put out the blaze. They used three aerial ladders to get above the blaze. Twenty Red Cross volunteers were on scene to take care of the tenants whose homes were burned.
When asked if there were any injuries, Morin stated that luckily there were none. However, he did note that one firefighter was the victim of heat stroke and was taken care of by paramedics.
The street was immediately closed to automobile traffic at 10:30 a.m. and a perimeter was set up around the block to keep bystanders away from possible danger. The fire was officially extinguished at 8 p.m. the same day.
Morin stated that the cause is still unknown and that there is an ongoing investigation into how the fire started.
Major fire in downtown Farnham
By Jordan Dionne, Special to The Record
