Lang’s Café on Broad Street has been left a charred shell after firefighters spent Wednesday morning battling a major blaze that sent heavy smoke billowing into the skyline in downtown Regina.
“We did make entry into the structure early on, we believe that there’s no one inside, we did go defensive about a half an hour later and right now our focus is keeping the exposure of buildings on both sides protected,” Regina fire marshal Randy Ryba explained.
A ball of fire could be seen blasting out of the front window of the building shortly after 6 a.m., forcing firefighters to move back into a more defensive position for safety reasons.
Seconds before this I saw a fire ball come blasting out of the windows next to firefighters. pic.twitter.com/xonyRQy0Dv
— Adriana Christianson (@AdrianaC_JME) April 4, 2018
The roof of the building was engulfed in flames within half an hour and the brick walls began to collapse as fire crews continued to douse the flames with water from above.
Randy Ryba with Regina Fire says as far as they know no one was in the building. They had to move back to focus on defending the neighbouring buildings. pic.twitter.com/EtmsgVSF21
— 980 CJME (@CJMENews) April 4, 2018
“Right now we have structural collapse on the front façade. It’s a very dangerous situation, we’ve got firefighters standing back and we’re applying water as best we can,” Ryba said from the scene after 7 a.m.
The fire is so big you can feel the heat from across the street. Firefighters have moved back into a defensive position. pic.twitter.com/qTC55izokN
— Adriana Christianson (@AdrianaC_JME) April 4, 2018
You can see the damage after an hour of fighting a major fire at Lang’s Cafe on Broad Street. pic.twitter.com/yLPWmFe7WK
— 980 CJME (@CJMENews) April 4, 2018
Ryba said the age of the structure added to a number of challenges for firefighters.
“Many layers, a lot of wood, brick paint and the like and it was a restaurant so there’s cooking grease and that sort as well.”
Crews continue to battle the fire that has mangled Lang's Cafe pic.twitter.com/OYunRf2tI1
— Kevin Martel (@KevinMartel) April 4, 2018
This light foam spray has been coming down pretty consistently for the last few hours pic.twitter.com/KGOx5Go7Zt
— Kevin Martel (@KevinMartel) April 4, 2018
One of the neighbouring buildings houses the Wonderland Entertainment Centre which offers many retro arcade games. The business posted a thank you to customers expressing concern and support on Facebook Wednesday morning, saying that it will be closed until further notice.