Fire at former Glace Bay high school now out

Firefighters in Cape Breton have extinguished a structure fire that forced some Glace Bay residents to evacuate their homes on Thursday. 

The fire broke out in the former Morrison High School building early Thursday morning, according to residents. The cause is still unknown but officials say there will be an investigation by the fire marshal to determine what happened. 

Twelve crews were on site with fire trucks to extinguish the blaze and prevent it from spreading to nearby homes. By late Thursday afternoon, fire crews had left and the building was in the process of being torn down. 

Fire officials said nine houses were evacuated. Some residents were seen leaving the area with suitcases. 

Marlene Gillard and her husband live in a house next to the school site. They grabbed passports, medication and family photos before leaving their home of 27 years. 

Gillard said it was hard to evacuate a house she put years of work into.

"I hope our houses are OK," she said. "But as long as we're safe, we're good." 

The building stopped functioning as a school in 2010 and had been vacant in recent years. It is not known if anyone was on site when the fire started. 

"We knew it was going to happen," said Gillard. "If only they had taken the school down when we told them to."

The old school building has been a concern for residents for years, said Cape Breton municipal councillor David MacKeigan.

"I've been hearing from them since the day I got elected that they were afraid this was going to happen." 

MacKeigan said the fire department had made plans in case a fire broke out at the old school.

"We never wanted to get to that point," he said. "It's very worrisome.… These old buildings, they've got to go."

Chief John Chant of the Glace Bay fire department said all departments that responded have been preparing for a potential fire at the school for two years, including on-site training nights.

Chant said crews were successful in stopping the fire from spreading to homes on St. Catherine Street, which was their priority. But he said damage to the building from Hurricane Fiona in 2022 made it impossible to fight the fire from inside. 

"We tried to do an internal attack and through the danger and the debris inside, we could not make it upstairs," he said. "We pulled our firefighters out and went defensive."

Chant said the team had been active since midnight, pointing out the blaze at the old school was the second major fire they'd responded to on Thursday. 

"We have some very tired firefighters."

John White, MLA for Glace Bay-Dominion, posted about the incident on Facebook. He thanked the crews for their efforts and encouraged residents to avoid the area. 

"Please be mindful of emergency scenes and do your part by staying clear so our first responders can do their job safely and efficiently," White said in the post.