A fire at the historic Halifax Armoury building in the city’s north end has been extinguished and investigators are now working to determine what caused the blaze.

Halifax Fire says DND dockyard firefighters first responded to the alarm at around 4 a.m. Thursday. They requested assistance from Halifax Fire, which sent in 15 units to the two-alarm fire.

“Upon arrival, there was a smoke or odour and a haze reported in the building. We also had sprinklers activated, and that was shown on the fire alarm panel,” said Assistant Chief Jim Stymiest.

The area around North Park and Cunard streets was closed to traffic and pedestrians and power was shut down in the area for a while.

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“It was difficult locating the fire,” said Stymiest.

“That building is under construction or renovation, so it was a little difficult to find the fire, but then once we did find the fires, hose lines were stretched in the building and we made an aggressive fire attack.

He said once crews accessed the interior of the historic building, they discovered fire on the first floor that extended up to the second floor.

The Halifax Armoury was built between 1895 and 1899 and was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1989.

The Department of National Defence has been undertaking a two-phased $160-million rehabilitation project on the building since 2017. That project includes structural and interior upgrades.

“With buildings like this that are under major renovations, it’s very hard to contain a fire like this. There’s no fire stops, as we say, in place, so the fire can spread very quickly,” Stymiest added.

He said the fire was deemed extinguished at around 8:30 a.m., and the scene was turned over to the Fire Marshal’s Office to determine the cause of the blaze.

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