It took the combined efforts of about 35 firefighters from several fire departments to bring a massive blaze under control on the weekend at a Highline Mushrooms farm near Crossfield, Alta.
The column of smoke rising from a one-storey building roughly the size of two ice arenas could be seen in Calgary, which is about 30 kilometres away, said Ben Niven, chief of the Crossfield Fire Department.
“At one point, we had 20 pieces of apparatus, and that was including command trucks and everything else.”
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After battling the blaze overnight on Sunday, some firefighters were still at the site well into yesterday afternoon to monitor the situation, he said.
“And then the investigation will begin once it’s safe to enter inside the structure.”
Although the building was still standing, many areas were compromised, said Niven.
Highline Mushrooms describes itself as Canada’s largest grower of mushrooms, as well as the world’s largest grower of organic mushrooms.
“We do not know yet what caused the fire,” it said in a statement Jan. 24.
The farm where the blaze took place is about eight kilometres south of Crossfield near the east side of Highway 2. It is one of eight facilities operated by the company in Alberta and British Columbia, along with four in Quebec and Ontario.
“We are devastated by the fire at our Crossfield farm location,” said the firm. “We are very grateful all our associates are safe and accounted for. Our first concern is ensuring the well-being of our associates.”
The company said it has customers throughout Canada and the United States. It did not say how the fire has affected its mushroom production and its ability to serve the market.
The blaze was reported about 1:30 p.m. Sunday in a building that was being used to grow mushrooms, said Niven. It was initially attended by Crossfield firefighters, who noted there was “lots of smoke and flame starting to show from the building already.”
At one point, firefighters and equipment from Crossfield, Carstairs, Beiseker and Airdrie attended the blaze, along with Rockyview County’s Irricana, Madden and Balzac stations. A tanker shuttle was established to transport water from Crossfield, and the RCMP were on hand to ensure the site’s entranceway was only used for emergency services personnel.
Efforts to control the fire were helped by mild weather, although conditions began to freeze after sunset, said Niven.
A dollar estimate of the damage was not available yesterday, he added.
“It’s a mega-sized mushroom farm, so there’s lots of grow rooms and stuff like that for the mushrooms, and of course the fertilizer and stuff they use inside the building — heavy machinery, that type of thing.
