Crews from the Steinbach Fire Department were called to the strip mall on Main Street between Friesen Avenue and Reimer Avenue around 3:30 p.m.  of Sunday.  The building housed a paint shop, a pet store and a flooring retailer.
Autumn Poitras, a resident of the area, said she heard the alarms on Sunday afternoon.
“I go to look outside and I see smoke billowing and I noticed a strange smell,” he said.
Looking at the charred wreckage is difficult for Steven Larson, the manager of the Best West Pet Foods store inside the mall.
“I knew it was bad, but still, seeing it in person, it’s even worse than I thought it would be,” Larson told CTV News.
He had received a call from an employee who worked at the store on Sunday afternoon, telling him that she smelled smoke.  Larson thought it was a loose or frayed wire – nothing serious – until the employee called him minutes later in a panic to say smoke was pouring out of the vents.
When Larson arrived at the store, fire crews were already battling the blaze.
The fire started in a shopping center in Steinbach on July 10, 2022. (Source: Facebook/Kenni Harder)
“We weren’t allowed back into the building, but two firefighters … went and grabbed all the animals they could, so we got some of them out — not enough, but we got some,” Larson said.
He said although there were more than 100 animals in the store, only three reptiles – two bearded dragons and a chameleon – were saved from the fire before things took a turn for the worse.
“Not long after, I saw flames starting from the top of the building,” he said.  “We’re connected to a paint store and a flooring store with a lot of flammables there, so once it started going, it went really fast.  .”
Steinbach Fire Chief Kelvin Toews said crews from the La Broquerie and Hanover fire departments helped fight the blaze.
“We determined it was no longer safe for us to be in the building. We withdrew and went on a defensive attack,” he said.
It was a challenge made even more difficult as the flames spread to a paint and flooring store, both containing highly flammable materials.
This prompted an air quality advisory.
In a statement, the Steinbach Fire Department said an air quality advisory was issued in Steinbach “due to the nature of the contents” of the structure involved.  The city of Steinbach tweeted that the smoke is considered toxic.
1 of 2 We continue to fight a major fire on Main Street between Friesen Avenue and Reimer Avenue.  Due to the contents of the structures involved in the fire, the resulting smoke is considered toxic.

— Steinbach Fire Dept. (@SteinbachFire) July 11, 2022
While the warning was lifted Monday afternoon, Toews said smoke may still linger. “People in the immediate vicinity of here should still be careful,” he said. “There will be residual smoke coming out of the building, but it shouldn’t go much farther than a block.” Toews said crews were on the scene overnight Sunday and throughout the day Monday, battling the fire and extinguishing hotspots. Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the fire, but the building is total. Toews said no injuries were reported. Larson said while he figures out what his next steps are for the pet store, the community has rallied around him. “We all feel so much love from the community, with people worried about us and almost as devastated as we are,” she said.