Regina refinery explosion marks 4th fire in 2 years

No injuries reported after Tuesday's blast that rocked Regina

The Canadian Press Posted: Dec 25, 2013 9:50 AM CT Last Updated: Dec 25, 2013 9:50 AM CT

Officials in Saskatchewan say there were no injuries after an explosion at a refinery rocked Regina.

The blast yesterday afternoon at the Federated Co-op refinery could be felt all around Regina and outside the city.

Police staff-sergeant Paul Tate says the explosion was similar to an incident in February, when a fire in a coker unit sent flames shooting nearly 20 metres in the air.

Fire officials say all personnel are accounted for, and the fire has been put out.

It's the fourth fire in about two years at the refinery.

In October 2011, corrosion in a pipe triggered a fireball that sent seven contract workers to hospital and forced 1,400 workers from the facility. No one was injured.

In May 2012, a much smaller fire occurred when an overheated crude oil pump ignited. There were no injuries.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall both tweeted about the explosion.

"Glad to hear all personnel have been accounted for at the Co-Op refinery in Regina. Please stay safe EMS crews," Harper said.

Wall said: "Praying for everyone at the Co-op Refinery. Hope all are safe."

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'Angels' deluge Springdale man with mail from around world

A family in the central Newfoundland town of Springdale says their son has received an "overwhelming" amount of mail from all corners of the globe thanks to the generosity of "so many angels."

Andrew Jacobs Reid, 24, has severe autism. His mother, Trina Reid, said getting mail always puts a smile on his face.

So, when a birthday parcel due to arrive last summer never showed, he was pretty upset. But Reid said she was quick to take action, asking a few of her social media friends to send him cards.

Just a small sampling of the mail that's been piling up at the Reid family home. (CBC)

"I put a note on Facebook for my friends, and asked if they would drop off a card in the mail for him to cheer him up, and it just went viral. All over the world — he's had stuff come from everywhere," she said.

"He got stuff from Denmark and England, Australia. It's coming from everywhere. There's packages coming from Asia, Antarctica — everywhere. It's worldwide now."

The family heads to the post office every day, heading home with such a big haul they spend two or three hours a day just opening letters and parcels.

Stuff from Pasadena, N.L., to Qatar, and everywhere in between has shown up in their mailbox — more than 1,000 pieces of mail in all.

"It's amazing. It's overwhelming when you walk in [to the post office]. When we went in the first time and his mailbox was full, and there was a cart there to go inside and they brought out all this, I was just floored, flabbergasted," Reid said.

"I couldn't believe it that there's so many angels, that's what I'll call 'em, there's so many angels that want to help put a smile on his face."

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Toronto ice storm: Thousands begin Boxing Day in dark

It's day five of darkness for about 54,700 Toronto residents as they spend Boxing Day waiting for electricity to be restored after a major ice storm blanketed the region over the weekend.

Hydro crews are working around the clock to get the power back on and the number of outages continues to decrease, though some customers may have to wait until the weekend to see their power restored.

Toronto Hydro spokesperson Tanya Bruckmueller was interviewed Thursday on CBC News Network and said about 54,700 customers are still blacked out, down from a high of 300,000 when the storm first hit on Sunday.

A few centimetres of snow fell overnight Wednesday, and the new dusting has slowed efforts to restore power.

"As the snow set it, we saw the numbers go up a bit," said Bruckmueller.  "We likely will see the numbers come back down again as crews do their shift change."

Bruckmueller said the restoration effort is now focused on "laterals" — the power lines that supply individual houses. "The last group will be people with damage to wires that supply their house directly," she said.

"It is difficult. We are trying our best," she said. "Many of our crews missed their holidays with their families. We are trying to do our best."

Two adults and two children in Toronto were taken to hospital for suspected carbon monoxide poisoning Tuesday evening. (Tony Smyth/CBC)

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said forestry crews from other municipalities are helping clear tree debris throughout the city but the clean-up is expected to take as long as six weeks.

Meanwhile, the mayor encouraged anyone without power to go to the homes of friends and relatives who do. If that's not an option, Ford encouraged residents without power to visit one of a handful of warming centres open around the city.

Toronto Hydro CEO Anthony Haines asked that customers be patient as the work to restore power continues.

"We are asking our customers to continue to give us some patience. Soon you will see Toronto Hydro crews on your street, or crews from other jurisdictions that are helping us, and you'll begin to see some of the neighbourhoods being restored," Haines said.

"You won't see the numbers coming down by the thousands, as we did in the early days ... you're going to see them coming down by ones. They are literally going to be one, two, three, four ... We will not stop until the work is done."

Power Stream, which covers the region north of Toronto, reported this morning that 2,500 customers are still down, and Veridian Connections, which serves the Pickering and Ajax region east of Toronto, had about 1,700 outages.

Two children and two adults in east-end Toronto have reportedly been taken to hospital to be treated for carbon monoxide poisoning.

A Toronto Hydro worker surveys the damage on a street near Kingston Road and Victoria Park Avenue in Toronto. (Matthew Sherwood/Canadian Press)

The apartment, at 35 Confederation Dr. in Scarborough, was without power and the occupants were burning coal to keep warm. The extent of injuries is not yet known.

All four occupants — including the children, aged two and three — were brought down dark stairwells from the seventh floor by emergency crews.

Toronto fire Chief Jim Sales says crews are fielding 10 to 12 times the normal volume of carbon monoxide calls.

"It's still a challenge," he said.

"I think people need to hear the message that devices that are made for outdoor use like your charcoal barbecues, your gas-powered barbecues, generators — please keep them outside. I realize and understand the situation, the cold homes, but please do not make your homes more unsafe."

At least two people died of carbon monoxide poisoning in Newcastle, Ont., east of Toronto, on Monday after trying to keep warm with a gas generator in a garage.

The ice storm was among the worst of its kind to hit the city in recent memory.

It left the city's transit system with major problems throughout much of the weekend, particularly the streetcars which were suspended from service for a number of hours on Sunday.

The ice that fell also weighed down the branches of trees, which they fell onto cars, buildings and power lines.

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Lac-Mégantic train disaster voted top news story of 2013

Heading into 2013, Lac-Mégantic was known as a quiet holiday town in a Quebec region recognized abroad for its mountaintop observatory and its inky, starry skies.

The community finishes the year remembered for a deadly train crash that horrified people around the world and ignited a fire so big its rage could be seen from space.

Last summer's Lac-Mégantic derailment, which killed 47 people and pushed the issue of rail safety into the spotlight, has been voted Canada's 2013 News Story of the Year in the annual survey of the country's newsrooms by The Canadian Press.

Timeline: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

Faces of the Lac-Mégantic tragedy

Photos: Lac-Mégantic decorates Christmas trees for those lost

Editors and news directors across Canada selected a story that circled the world after a runaway train hauling crude oil careened off the tracks and exploded, levelling dozens of buildings in the heart of town.

The multiple layers to the July 6 catastrophe attracted interest with its gripping stories of survival and loss, the vast environmental consequences and the stunning images of the devastation. It also launched new debates about the continent's boom in oil-by-rail traffic.

In the News Story of the Year poll, the Lac-Mégantic tragedy received nearly 31 per cent of the ballots cast. Voters were asked to either choose a story from a list of candidates or to nominate their own selection.

"The Lac-Mégantic disaster was one which caused everyone who lives in a small Canadian city, or town that has freight trains rumbling through it, (to) stop and ponder, 'That could happen to me some day,' " said Murray Guy, assistant managing editor for the Times & Transcript in Moncton, N.B.

"From the sheer enormity of the death, destruction and upheaval for a small community's way of life, to the shaken trust we all have in our rail safety laws, Lac-Mégantic will likely become a red-letter day in the world of railway safety."

Adrienne Tanner, deputy editor for the Vancouver Sun, said, "Disasters don't get any bigger. A human tragedy with a lot of political and policy implications going forward."

Senate expenses scandal in 2nd place

The Lac-Mégantic story edged the Senate expenses scandal, which received 24 per cent of the votes.

Voters who chose the Senate controversy argued it's an issue that could bring long-lasting change to Canada.

Nigel Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former chief of staff, was embroiled in the Senate expense scandal, which was edged out by the Lac-Megantic train derailment as the top news story of 2013. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

"The Senate expense story strikes a deep core visceral nerve with readers," Jim Poling, the Hamilton Spectator's managing editor, said of a scandal that has swamped the Prime Minister's Office.

"It's about the money, but it's mostly about the entitlement. It's a story that has the potential to change the structure of government in Canada and who its leaders are."

Rob Ford, Toronto's notorious mayor who admitted to smoking crack cocaine, finished third after amassing nearly 23 per cent of the vote. Those who selected the Ford story, which became the butt of jokes on American late-night TV shows, said they made their choice based on how much attention it grabbed around the world.

"Very tough choice," said Colin McNeil, web editor for Metro News.

"But ... the Rob Ford scandal caught fire nationally and globally in a way none of the other, more 'serious' stories did."

A media-monitoring firm found that the Ford story generated 1.4 times more international news coverage in 2013 than the Lac-Mégantic disaster.

But the world still took notice of the rail tragedy — in a big way.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford grabbed headlines around the world. (Canadian Press)

It remained a top-3 worldwide news item over the first four days following the disaster and reached as far away as Kuwait, India and the Philippines, says a recently released study by Montreal-based Influence Communication.

"Media organizations are attracted to the dramatic (side of a story)," said Influence spokeswoman Eve Couture, who noted the crash also launched public discussions about oil-by-rail transport and prompted long investigations by authorities.

"It's a mysterious story that had many mysterious elements: an unmanned train that hurtled down a hill that blew up a village."

The analysis also says Lac-Mégantic generated more coverage within Quebec than any story since the start of the century, ahead of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The results of the News Story of the Year survey also suggest that geography played a role in the voting. The train disaster was selected by 55 per cent of newsrooms polled in Quebec, but was the top choice of only 26 per cent of the voters based outside the province.

Reflecting on rail safety

In Lac-Mégantic, the mayor believes the crash that struck her community of 6,000 has potential repercussions for people across Canada and beyond.

"I think this tragedy allowed the whole world to reflect on rail safety," Colette Roy-Laroche told The Canadian Press in a recent interview at the sports centre in Lac-Mégantic, about 250 kilometres east of Montreal.

'From the sheer enormity of the death, destruction and upheaval for a small community's way of life, to the shaken trust we all have in our rail safety laws, Lac-Megantic will likely become a red-letter day in the world of railway safety.'- Murray Guy, Times & Transcript assistant managing editor

Roy-Laroche hopes all the attention generated by the disaster will inspire governments and companies around the globe to push for improvements to train security.

Trains returned last week to Lac-Megantic, where the economy relies on the railroad, for the first time since the derailment. For now, trains that cross through town will only carry non-hazardous materials.

The community greeted the rebirth of the rail line with difficulty, as people here slowly rebuild their lives amid a prolonged grieving period.

The town's tranquil region of rolling hills, popular with outdoor enthusiasts, is perhaps best known for the nearby Mont-Megantic observatory. Stargazing is made easier here thanks to the internationally recognized "dark-sky reserve" that blankets the area, established through local efforts to reduce night-time light pollution.

On July 6, the glow of the fire from the 1 a.m. derailment was so bright it could be seen in a NASA satellite image captured an hour after the crash.

The mayor was among those who witnessed the terrifying blaze from the ground with her own eyes.

Roy-Laroche, who lives outside of downtown, was jolted awake by her ringing phone shortly after that initial explosion.

Someone she worked with at the municipality was on the line and told her: "Ms. Roy-Laroche, the train derailed downtown and the city is on fire."

Roy-Laroche said she and her husband quickly rushed toward downtown Lac-Megantic by car, and when they couldn't drive any further, they moved even closer to the damaged area by foot.

"The flames were so big, so high — we even heard noises, small explosions," she said of the inferno ignited by the volatile crude oil in the tankers.

"People were crying, people were screaming."

The blast had obliterated dozens of buildings in the downtown core, including a bustling bar and the library. Meanwhile, millions of litres of crude gushed from the rail cars into the environment.

The mayor received several disturbing updates from firefighters at the front line — those reports included an expanding list of structures that had vanished. Up to 2,000 people were evacuated from their homes and Roy-Laroche said she quickly began preparations to set up an emergency shelter at a local high school.

All of this, she figures, happened within the first hour.

"We had to think quickly and I didn't have time to cry," Roy-Laroche recalled.

One of her next challenges was to handle the sudden, intensive media attention amid the unfolding crisis.

The small-town mayor was the first to address a joint news conference, held only a few hours after the derailment, alongside officials from the fire department, police service and provincial government.

As she spoke on a street just outside downtown, an unknown number of residents were still unaccounted for and smashed tanker cars continued to burn in the background.

Roy-Laroche said she was stunned by the number of news cameras that had already descended on her community.

"That's when my emotions rose — I'd say it was the only time that I truly felt weak," said Roy-Laroche, who later became a household name in Quebec for her poise and calm demeanour while handling the catastrophe.

"When I saw the cameras, that's when I realized that at least (the entire province of) Quebec was listening to me."

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Robert Latimer in court to challenge travel restrictions

Robert Latimer is seeking changes to his travel restrictions so he can travel freely outside Canada.

A Saskatchewan farmer who was convicted of killing his severely disabled daughter is challenging a National Parole Board decision that prevents him from travelling freely outside of Canada.

Robert Latimer filed a notice of application in Federal Court in Vancouver on Monday, requesting a judge review a decision that was made by the parole board's appeal division in November and requires him to obtain pre-approval for international travel.

The application is timely because about a month ago, Latimer received clearance to travel to Peru for a Habitat for Humanity project, but his plans might fall through because officials won't be able to process his travel documents until mid-February, said his lawyer Jason Gratl.

The parole board did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"International travel for parolees is often a complex, Byzantine exercise that can be difficult to arrange," said Gratl during an interview. "This would be akin to advance approval for all those travel arrangement and would cut through a tremendous amount of bureaucratic red tape."

For example, the parole board must pre-authorize a parolee's travel arrangements and co-ordinate their activities with foreign customs officials and even airlines, said Gratl.

None of the work can be done in a reasonable amount of time, and it is often so complicated and bureaucratic that travel is not practical, he added.

But according to the document filed by Latimer, the parole board can grant a permanent exemption to international travel restrictions.

This past July, though, it turned down a request by Latimer that he be allowed to travel freely outside the country without having to apply for a limited-time passport.

The appeal division upheld that decision in a Nov. 14 ruling.

In the Federal Court document, Latimer argues the appeal division did not consider his application based on its merits and did not find the earlier decision on the issue by the board unreasonable.

The document also questions whether the parole board's policy of granting exemptions is consistent with the Corrections and Conditional Release Act.

The application asks the judge to set aside the appeal division's decision and refer the matter back to the parole board.

It also asks the judge to declare the parole board's policy on the matter inconsistent with federal legislation.

Latimer, who farmed in the Wilkie, Sask., area, was convicted of second-degree murder in 1997 and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years for killing his severely disabled daughter, Tracy.

His daughter was 12 at the time of her death in 1993. She had cerebral palsy and died when her dad piped exhaust into the cab of his truck.

He was released from prison on day parole in 2008 and granted full parole, with some conditions, in 2010.

This past July, the board removed another of Latimer's release conditions, and ruled he no longer needs one-on-one psychological counselling as part of his full parole.

But Latimer was still banned from having responsibility for anyone with a significant disability, and it denied his request to travel freely outside Canada without having to apply first for a limited time passport.

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Explosion and fire rock Regina refinery

A picture of the Co-op Refinery after today's explosion.

The loud explosion and fire that rocked a Regina refinery on Tuesday afternoon was caused by liquefied petroleum gas, the city's deputy fire chief said said on Twitter.

The noise from the blast, which went off at about 3:30 p.m. CST, could be heard around the city.

By 5 p.m., the flames at the Co-op Refinery were 95 per cent contained, fire officials said.

People in the area who witnessed the incident said they saw fire and smoke coming out of the complex, which is on the city's northeast side.

Regina city councillor Wade Murray said he was on the Ring Road driving by the refinery when the explosion rocked his truck.

A source at the scene told CBC News the explosion and fire happened in the poly reactor, a section of the refinery where liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, is made.

Fire officials said it appeared no one was injured.

Within an hour of the blast, there was still some smoke coming out of the refinery, but it appeared the fire was mostly out.

Fire trucks and ambulances were seen leaving the area a few minutes later.

There's no word yet on what might have sparked the gas.

There have been several explosions and fires at the refinery complex over the last 25 years, the most serious being one in October 2011, which injured 36 people. 

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'Angels' deluge Springdale man with mail from around world

A family in the central Newfoundland town of Springdale says their son has received an "overwhelming" amount of mail from all corners of the globe thanks to the generosity of "so many angels."

Andrew Jacobs Reid, 24, has severe autism. His mother, Trina Reid, said getting mail always puts a smile on his face.

So, when a birthday parcel due to arrive last summer never showed, he was pretty upset. But Reid said she was quick to take action, asking a few of her social media friends to send him cards.

Just a small sampling of the mail that's been piling up at the Reid family home. (CBC)

"I put a note on Facebook for my friends, and asked if they would drop off a card in the mail for him to cheer him up, and it just went viral. All over the world — he's had stuff come from everywhere," she said.

"He got stuff from Denmark and England, Australia. It's coming from everywhere. There's packages coming from Asia, Antarctica — everywhere. It's worldwide now."

The family heads to the post office every day, heading home with such a big haul they spend two or three hours a day just opening letters and parcels.

Stuff from Pasadena, N.L., to Qatar, and everywhere in between has shown up in their mailbox — more than 1,000 pieces of mail in all.

"It's amazing. It's overwhelming when you walk in [to the post office]. When we went in the first time and his mailbox was full, and there was a cart there to go inside and they brought out all this, I was just floored, flabbergasted," Reid said.

"I couldn't believe it that there's so many angels, that's what I'll call 'em, there's so many angels that want to help put a smile on his face."

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Carbon monoxide poisoning sends 4 to hospital in Toronto

Two children and two adults in east-end Toronto have reportedly been taken to hospital to be treated for carbon monoxide poisoning.

The apartment, at 35 Confederation Drive in Scarborough, was without power and the occupants were burning coal to keep warm. The extent of injuries is not yet known.

All four occupants — including the children, aged two and three — were brought down dark stairwells from the seventh floor by emergency crews.

Authorities have strongly cautioned people against using gas-powered generators, charcoal stoves or even barbecues indoors to keep warm.

At least two people died of carbon monoxide poisoning in Newcastle, Ont., east of Toronto, on Monday after trying to keep warm with a gas generator in a garage.

It's Christmas morning, but tens of thousands of Toronto residents are still waiting for electricity to be restored after an ice storm blanketed the region over the weekend.

A Toronto Hydro workman knocks ice off a frozen power line following an ice storm in Toronto. (Gary Hershorn/Reuters)

Hydro crews are working non-stop to get the lights back on and the number of outages continues to dwindle, though some customers may have to wait until the weekend to see their power restored.

In Toronto, about 70,000 Toronto Hydro customers were still blacked out, down from a high of 300,0000, and Hydro One is still coping with more than 30,000 outages.

Power Stream, which covers the region north of Toronto, says 12,000 customers are still down, and Veridian Connections, which serves the Pickering and Ajax region east of Toronto, had about 4,000 outages.

A Toronto Hydro worker surveys the damage on a street near Kingston Road and Victoria Park Avenue in Toronto. (Matthew Sherwood/Canadian Press)

Authorities are urging residents to make use of warming centres in their communities to ward off the cold.

Plunging temperatures Tuesday night prompted the city to issue a cold weather alert, aimed at making the homeless aware of the dangers of staying outside too long in cold weather and to ensure they have safe and warm places to go. The alert was cancelled early Wednesday morning.

The ice storm was among the worst of its kind to hit the city in recent memory.

It left the city's transit system with major problems throughout much of the weekend, particularly the streetcars which were suspended from service for a number of hours on Sunday.

The ice that fell also weighed down the branches of trees, which then fell onto cars, buildings and power lines.

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Ice storm means dark Christmas for tens of thousands

Christmas is a time for family and get-togethers, but for tens of thousands of Canadians this morning, it also means scrambling to find warmth — sometimes with dangerous results — following an ice storm that has knocked out power for days.

Toronto Hydro said early Wednesday that about 70,000 customers were still without electricity, from a high of about 300,000.

"We've restored all critical customers (TTC, Water services etc), and crews continue to repair priority feeders, which will restore the largest groups of customers at one time," the utility said in a release. "Crews will then respond to more localized outages, which affect streets or individual homes."

Crews are still working to restore power in parts of southern Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The ice storm slammed into southern Ontario last weekend before moving east and causing havoc in the Maritimes.

People desperate to keep warm are also engaging in some dangerous practices.

'Our power is out and we can't cook our turkey meal, which sucks.'- Saint John resident 

Early Christmas morning, two children and two adults in east-end Toronto were taken to hospital to be treated for carbon monoxide poisoning, reportedly after the occupants of an apartment were burning coal to keep warm.

The incident follows the death of two people in Newcastle, Ont., after carbon monoxide apparently seeped into their home from the garage where a gas generator was in use, prompting authorities to caution people against using  generators, charcoal stoves and barbecues indoors.

No tree stood unscathed on one Brampton, Ont., street after an ice storm hit over the weekend. (Submitted by Bailey Parnell)

The ice storm downed power lines, left trees and roads covered in ice and caused widespread travel delays.

Power Stream, the utility that serves Markham, Richmond Hill and Vaughan, among other Ontario communities, reported 12,100 customers were still down by early Wednesday. Veridian Connections, which serves the Pickering and Ajax areas east of Toronto, said about 4,000 customers were still affected.

Hydro One, which serves 1.3 million customers in Ontario including Guelph, Peterborough and Walkerton, had 31,000 customers still without power.

In other parts of Canada:

• Hydro Quebec said some 28,000 customers were without electricity, primarily in the Eastern Townships.
• In New Brunswick, just under 29,000 customers were still in the dark, with about half of them in the Rothesay area. 
• In Nova Scotia, the number of outages had been cut to less than 1,000 by late Tuesday, and all power had been restored by Christmas Day.

Toronto Hydro says it is receiving assistance from other utilities, including Hydro Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie PUC, Enwin (Windsor) and Manitoba Hydro.

Besides burdening residents, the fallout from the ice storm has also disrupted emergency workers' plans who have been helping to restore power.

Manitoba Hydro worker Darren McMurdo said he had an early Christmas with his wife and kids to travel to the Toronto area to help out.

"We had a little Christmas in a hurry last night," McMurdo told CBC News on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne reacted to criticism that power wasn't being restored quickly enough by saying: "So far the progress we're seeing in affected communities is very encouraging." 

"We're three days into this and tens of thousands of people who didn't have power — hundreds of thousands of people who didn't have power  — have power now and the progress has been remarkable."

Many customers, however, could be without electricity until the weekend, and Toronto Hydro CEO Anthony Haines said the situation could get worse.

"I can honestly say I've never paid so much attention to the weather forecast before in my life until I did this week," he said Tuesday morning.

Haines said there was still a risk of more outages if the weather worsened.

"It continues to be one of my big concerns that if we see another weather event with trees that continue to be laden with ice and snow, that we'll get additional damage," he said Tuesday.

The utility put out a call on Twitter asking anyone who runs a restaurant that will be open on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day to contact them as the crews working to restore power need food.

The CBC's Catherine Harrop said from Fredericton on Tuesday morning that N.B. Power was facing a tough job.

"N.B. Power is saying they're really struggling because, of course, the crews have to work on ice and they're working with those who can take down tree limbs at the same time as the linemen are working on the power lines. So it's a pretty tricky situation."

While the ice storm's devastation has left many people frantic, one Saint John resident calmly expressed her frustration to CBC News on Christmas Eve, saying: "Our power out and we can't cook our turkey meal, which sucks."

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Toronto apartment fire leaves 1 dead

New

Fire not related to ice storm

CBC News Posted: Dec 25, 2013 10:09 AM ET Last Updated: Dec 25, 2013 10:16 AM ET

A man in his 60s is dead after a fire at an apartment in Toronto's Beaches neighbourhood early Wednesday morning.

Officials say the fire broke out at around 7:40 a.m. ET in a fourth-floor suite of the building on Queen Street East near Glen Manor Road.

The cause of the fire has not been determined, but officials say the blaze was contained to the victim's suite. It's not clear where in the suite the fire broke out.

The incident is not related to the recent ice storm and the building had power when the fire broke out.

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