A fire last night (June 22) completely destroyed the Balzac Meats building on Township Road 263 near Balzac. 

Seven fire apparatus and 25 firefighters from two fire stations in Rocky View County: Station 107 in Balzac and Station 108 in Irricana, along with Airdrie and Crossfield crews responded to the rural property just before midnight. 

According to Rocky View District Fire Chief Bill Clarke, a 911 call was placed by a Balzac Meats employee who discovered the fire.  The employee was not injured.  When fire crews arrived they found the structure to be fully involved. 

"The mid-part of one of the quonset huts had flames coming out the windows and actually breaching the roof at that time," Clarke says.

Clarke says the fire was difficult to extinguish.  "It took a little bit at first because once it gets into that structure, once it goes into the roof, it's really defensive from there.  It really makes it hard to effectively put out the fire as quickly but it's also the safest route.  Once it gets into the roof, we don't want firefighters in there.  You can see the destruction and damage.  We don't want anybody in there once these components start to fail and collapse."

No firefighters were injured by the blaze.

Clarke says it was a long night.  "We had a shift change at 7:00 am and we've got a fresh group on here.  We're still watching hot spots."

The cause of the fire is under investigation and no damage estimate has yet to be arrived at.