Waegwoltic Club catches fire for second time in two months | CBC ...
Nova Scotia
As crews battled multiple blazes throughout the Halifax area Thursday, they were called to the historic club on the Northwest Arm. The deputy fire chief says some items from inside the building were saved.
Jeremy Hull · CBC News
· Posted: Jun 01, 2023 6:35 PM EDT | Last Updated: 7 hours ago
A historic Halifax tennis club sustained "very, very significant damage" during a fire Thursday afternoon, as crews battled multiple blazes throughout the municipality.
Halifax Fire Deputy Chief David Meldrum said crews were called to the Waegwoltic Club at 1:35 p.m.
During a news briefing with reporters at 5 p.m., Meldrum said the situation at the Waeg was too severe to fight from inside the building, so his crew adopted a defensive strategy.
He said that the building received significant damage, but that some artifacts were saved.
Another fire at the Waeg was reported on April 14, but Meldrum said it did not appear to be related.
The fire at the Waeg is one of 12 crews were busy with aside from the wildfires in Shelburne County and the Halifax area.
'We're stretched'"We have multiple crews going to each location, some of them are small, but each one requires a response," Meldrum said. "It impacts our surge capacity for other incidents in the municipality."
A full emergency recall was issued for all available firefighters in the province Thursday afternoon.
Meldrum said that the new fires have been "knocked down" — a term used to describe a suppressed, but still active fire. He said that nothing is certain amidst hot weather and changing wind.
"We're not broken, but we're stretched," Meldrum said.
Meldrum said the next update on the fires would be 9 a.m. on Friday.
Jeremy Hull writes for magazines about art, sports, business and energy. He’s happiest when writing about jiu jitsu or fishing. Jeremy was a writer-in-residence at the Canadian Film Centre. His work is accessible at jkhull.ca.
