By Thia James

Post-fire cleanup at Central Ave. YWCA underway

Jan 8, 2014 | 10:58 AM

Cleanup work is underway at the Central Avenue YWCA, just more than a week after a fire damaged part of an upper-level kitchen and smoke damage forced a number of residents out of their rooms.

“We’re in the process of cleaning up those 10 rooms, so, we really only have a couple of people out right now that are, one person is staying at Our House, down on 15th Street [East] and another person is staying, one of our youth is staying over at our youth home on Sixth Avenue [East],” said Prince Albert YWCA executive director Donna Brooks on Tuesday morning.

A number of people were displaced after an accidental fire broke out on the morning of Dec. 30, starting on a stove top. A “combustible” item was left on the stove overnight, and a knob was accidentally bumped, turning a burner on. The fire spread from the item to a surrounding cupboard. The fire damage was limited to that area, but the smoke damage affected 10 bedrooms on the second floor.

All residents made it out to safety unharmed, and most of the residents were able to return to parts of the building, except for the 10 smoke-damaged rooms. Those residents had to stay at the YWCA’s other facilities in Prince Albert.

“We still don’t have use of those 10 rooms yet, which puts us down rooms to be able to deal with any new people wanting to come in, but we should have those 10 rooms cleaned up within about two weeks,” Brooks said.

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The YWCA was fully insured, and First General Service has already come in to do the initial cleanup work. Brooks said this cleanup is what is taking place now.

Repairs will have to be undertaken to fix damage in the kitchen area and the living area, Brooks said. Items such as the stove destroyed in the fire, the cupboards, and flooring also need to be replaced. All of this is done through the insurance process, she added.

New safeguards will be put in place to help prevent a similar kind of accident from occurring in the future.

“Nothing can be left on the stove overnight,” Brooks said, and added, “And we’ll increase the number of checks of our stoves.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames