A fire on 1st Avenue NW Monday morning

 

A fire in downtown Moose Jaw this hour has firefighters concentrating their efforts on the brick building that shares that back alley with Mosaic Place.

It's just south of the corner of High Street and 1st NW.  Emergency crews on scene tell us the fire was called in around 6:24am and was on the fire escape on the south side of the building.  The fire has now spread to the rest of the building and a lot of effort is being put into hosing down the main level of the structure. The apartment building to the west has been evacuated as a precaution.

Firefighters have been pumping a large amount of water into the building since they arrived on scene. Just before 8am, flames started escaping from the roof and the blaze now appears to be getting worse. Our reporter on the scene says it appears as though firefighters are focused on preventing the fire from spreading to a building to the north.

1st Avenue is closed from Fairford Street to the Manitoba Expressway and traffic on High Street West is also affected.

We'll have more on this story as it develops. You can see pictures by clicking here.