London firefighters examine the fire-damaged R and T Pawn Shop and Jewellery on Richmond Street on Thursday morning. A blaze that broke out in the shop at about 7 a.m. forced seven people from apartments above the store and closed down several streets in the downtown core. The fire is still under investigation.
Shoeless and startled, Gianni Liolli was forced from his Richmond Street third floor apartment at 7 a.m. Thursday (March 15) morning when a fire broke out in the pawnshop below.
He said he awoke to a fire alarm going off and immediately smelled smoke.
When he reached the building’s stairwell, it was filled with smoke and he had to hold his shirt over his mouth in order to breathe while escaping the building.
Colby Pearson, who lived on the building’s second floor, said he barely had time to grab his shoes, laptop computer and guitar before escaping the smoke down a fire escape.
Liolli, Pearson and roughly five other people were forced from the building at 402 and a half Richmond St. between Dundas and King streets when the fire broke out and thick black smoke moved quickly through the building’s upper floors, but no one was injured.
London Fire Department Platoon Chief Mike Black said at the scene the fire broke out in the R and T Pawn Shop and Jewellery on Richmond Street just before 7 a.m. and four engines, along with a ladder truck, a rescue truck and a command vehicle responded to the scene.
Although he could not say what the cost of the damage was, the interior of the shop appeared blackened throughout and its windows were shattered.
Firefighters were able to prevent the blaze from spreading into other parts of the building.
Investigators were still looking into the cause of the fire as of 11 a.m. Thursday morning, said Deputy Fire Chief Brian George, adding the occupants of four apartments on the second floor of the four-storey building and three apartments on the third floor were evacuated.
The building’s four floor was vacant.
At this point, investigators are not considering the fire as suspicious, he said.
London Hydro cut the power to a part of the building just after 8:30 a.m.
Police closed the area to vehicle traffic at King, Queen, Dundas and Talbot streets, causing traffic delays in the downtown core during the morning commute.
By 11:30 a.m., police reported, Richmond Street was reduced to one lane for northbound traffic from Carling Street to King Street.
John Ford, the London Transit Commission’s transportation and planning director, said the commission rerouted buses off of Richmond Street beginning at 7 a.m. but full service was resumed at 11:30 a.m.
He said there were few delays, however, since traffic in the downtown area was light, likely due to March Break.
While most of the building’s residential occupants reported no fire damage in their apartments, they said their units were filled with smoke.
Several employees at neighbouring businesses were also forced out of their offices due to heavy smoke from the fire.
Employees from Downtown London, a downtown improvement organization located around the corner from the pawnshop on Dundas Street, said they were going to operate remotely from the nearby Covent Garden Market.
By Paul Everest/London Community News
