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BRUCE BARTLETT
TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL

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SAINT JOHN - Main Street North, no stranger to fires, was the scene of another blaze Wednesday night and it resulted in eight people being displaced.

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Peter Walsh/Telegraph-Journal

Members of the Saint John Fire Department battle a blaze in the back of the building at 325-333 Main St. on Wednesday evening.

Peter Walsh/Telegraph-Journal

Members of the Saint John Fire Department were on the scene all Wednesday evening after a fire broke out at 225-333 Main St. No one was injured in the blaze.

The fire department was called out shortly after 6 p.m. to 325-333 Main Street, said Deputy Fire Chief Mark Gillan.

"It was immediately apparent it had a very large volume of fire so the district chief went to a second alarm which is a second engine company and then to a third alarm which is an extra ladder company," he said.

The fire department had six pieces of equipment and 24 firefighters at the height of the blaze. Much of the building visible from Main Street was not touched by fire but a section attached at the back was severely damaged.

"It is a very large structure, basically four structures that are joined together and a number of sheds and buildings that are built off the back towards Metcalf," Gillan said.

As well as housing a number of businesses, there are about 15 apartments in the building but everyone got out safely, he said.

Allan Haan, one of the residents, said he first heard of the fire when a neighbour knocked on his door.

"I looked out the back window and I seen a big sheet of flames coming up the back steps," he said. "I didn't even know there was a fire I didn't smell smoke or nothing."

Before moving to the city, he had been a volunteer firefighter so he told himself to stay calm and get his girlfriend out. He felt the floor and walls for heat. Since they were cool, he knew they had a few minutes.

An hour or so after the fire started, he was allowed back in to get his girlfriend's medication and there was still no smoke in the apartment so he is hopeful they will be able to move back in a day or two.

Gillan said two fire crews worked to make sure all the residents were out of the building.

"We attacked the fire from the inside of the building, working out to the back," he said.

Firefighters were busy tearing down interior ceilings and walls to make sure the fire was not traveling into other parts of the building, he said.

The same building was involved in a blaze in February 2007 when one of the tenants, who was angry at the landlord, set fire to the curtains in his apartment. A firefighter was injured in that blaze when he was struck by a window frame that fell out of the third storey.