The MAX Arts Athletics Wellness centre in Mount Pearl was heavily damaged by fire early Thursday morning.
Platoon chief Dean Foley said the St. John’s Regional fire department received the call from a passerby at 4:12 a.m. and were on scene a minute later as the Mount Pearl station was directly across the road from the Max building. The passerby happened to be an off-duty firefighter who was driving his wife to the airport and noticed the smoke coming from the centre.
On arrival, firefighters found heavy smoke and fire coming from the building and an initial attack team entered the building to knock down the blaze which was located in the front right section.
Firefighters then entered from other exits and brought it under control but not before that section was heavily damaged and the rest of the building had been damaged by smoke. Foley said the roof in the heavily damaged area was also sagging.
There is no word on the cause of the fire and there were no injuries.
