All hands were on deck Thursday morning, as Cranbrook firefighters worked to extinguish a fire in the Kootenay Springs building.
Cranbrook Fire and Emergency Services said all of its staff were called in to help tackle the blaze.
Fire Chief Scott Driver said getting inside the building presented a challenge.
“It’s been boarded up for quite some time. When we did finally get access into the building, we discovered there was some light fire inside the building,” said Driver.
Traffic was closed off along 6th Street North while crews battled the flames.
“It caused a lot of traffic disruption, but at present, the road is back open and we’ve cleared the scene,” said Driver.
Investigators believe the fire was caused by people trying to take shelter from the cold.
“It’s not a new discovery that people use the building from time to time to get out of the weather,” said Driver. “Because there’s no utilities in the building, they were in there with a warming fire and either it was left alone or it got out of hand and they left.”
Nobody was hurt by the fire, and the building is still standing.
Driver said Cranbrook Fire and Emergency Services will try to get in touch with the building’s owner to get it secured again.