Early morning fire at Union hotel under investigation

ATHABASCA — A fire at the closed Grand Union Hotel in Athabasca last week is currently under investigation. 

In the early morning of Feb. 17 Town of Athabasca fire crews responded to a 911 call of smoke coming from the downtown landmark which has been closed for several months now after the basement flooded last fall. 

“Upon arrival our crews found smoke coming from the second floor,” said fire chief Travis Shalapay later in the day. “They were able to make entry to the building and found the fire contained to one of the rooms up there." 

Within minutes of the 2:30 a.m. call six crew members were on scene with seven more arriving shortly after. 

“They quickly knocked the fire down and extinguished it without it spreading to anywhere else in the building,” he said, adding the crew members were there for about an hour. 

The fire however comes just a couple weeks after Shalapay, and a few days after Athabasca RCMP commander Staff Sgt. Mark Hall both commented during separate Town of Athabasca council meetings that there was concern about the empty building, which has been a known harbour for low- and no-shelter people living in and travelling through the area.

"I agree that homelessness and mental health are two big concerns I also experience by working with Primary Care Network and it just made me think about if you have any information on since the Union's now locked up I know that some of those people that were homeless, were staying there," said. Coun. Jon LeMessurier at the Feb. 15 council meeting. "Do you know where those people have moved to?"

Hall said there are a few places the homeless population have been staying ever since the hotel was shuttered, but not all the time.

"I don't know if they're still in the Union or they've been sneaking back in there once in a while," said Hall. "But that was when it was really, really cold and since then they've moved on."

He added since the hotel closed there have been zero mischief calls in that area.

At the Feb. 1 council meeting, Shalapay noted it is important to have good relationships with local businesses like Trident to use their pumps which can source water from shallow areas and neighbouring departments who may have equipment that Athabasca does not.

"We want to make sure we have relationship agreements in place ... we can look back at the (old) Home Hardware fire being a large fire," said Shalapay. "There's other buildings in town that concern me more in terms of footprint and size and where I may need other resources like a ladder truck out of Lac La Biche. So, making sure that we have those relationships and agreements in place ahead of time is going to be very, very important. I think we could think of the building on 50th (Street) and 50th (Avenue). I'm specifically thinking of that building right now."

Shalapay was unable to provide more details Feb. 17 until the building owner is notified and did not report any civilian or fire crew injuries.

“The fire is currently under investigation, but it is not suspicious at this time,” Shalapay said.

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