They made headlines, sparked water cooler talk and kept us busy in the newsroom.  It's time to count down the Top 5 Local News Stories of the Year.

It was a terrible start to the week in downtown Moose Jaw last April as a 100 year old building went up in smoke. sending apartment tenants into the cold morning air. Firefighters were called to the brick building, just south of the corner of 1st and High Street west, around 6:24am. At the time, Fire Chief Garth Palmer explained his crews got right to work.

"We responded from both stations. It was reported as a fire outside of the building. They extinguished the fire at the rear of the building and very quickly found out that that fire had spread from the inside and so they started to evacuate the building."

Chief Palmer said there were 10 people inside the building and they were all evacuated safely, although one person did have to be treated by Moose Jaw and District EMS for undisclosed injuries. The Red Cross and the Salvation Army helped the residents who were displaced by the fire.

Shortly after crews arrived on scene, the roof of the building collapsed. As Chief Palmer mentioned, the original report was that the fire started on the fire escape but it was later revealed that the fire started inside and spread to the outside wall.

A few days later, demolition crews arrived on scene and finished off what the fire had started. Due to the extensive damage to the building, it was determined that the walls needed to be pushed in to prevent any mishaps at the very busy intersection.

In the days that followed, the Moose Jaw Fire Relief Fund was set up at a few banks around the Friendly City to help the fire victims. "Just seeing the residents in complete shock from being awoken at six in the morning and coming outside into the cold with just their pyjamas on." said Moose Jaw & District EMS' Ray Francis.  "We just thought we could help out a little bit more to get them back into some kind of living arrangements."

Today, all that remains is a vacant lot with a for sale sign.

Take a look at some of our photos here.

 Top Stories of 2012 #4