The Ontario Fire Marshal is investigating after fire gutted a vacant residential/commercial building in downtown Belleville known to be used as shelter by the homeless overnight Sunday.
The vacant building is right beside the former Hotel Quinte property at 217 Pinnacle Street.
It was slated for demolition as part of a proposed condominium project on the hotel property.
A General Alarm was sounded around 11 p.m. Sunday and all available urban firefighters were called into action.
It took several hours for the stubborn blaze to be brought under control and around 10 o’clock Monday morning firefighters began searching the building’s interior to see if anyone was inside.
One firefighter suffered a foot injury.
The cause is unknown at this time but is considered suspicious as Deputy Fire Chief Mark Shannon tells Quinte News there has not been power in the building for quite some time.
The area of the fire remains blocked off to traffic and is not expected to reopen for several more hours.
