The Assistant Fire Chief for Steinbach says it looked a lot worse than it was.

Mike Penner is referring to Monday's fire at the former Eastman Recycling building along Industrial Road. The Steinbach Fire Department was dispatched to the scene shortly before noon.

"When we arrived on scene, we had lots of dark smoke coming out of the overhead doors on the east side of the building," explains Penner. "It looked a little more intimidating when we first showed up but once we realized what it was, we were able to cool it down and put the fire out."

enVision Community Living recently sold the building and in an effort to get it ready for the possession date, crews have been removing some of the old equipment from the site. Penner says a contractor was using a cutting torch and some embers must have fallen underneath the conveyor belt, causing some debris to catch fire. It was the belt that ignited, causing the dark smoke.

"For the most part it was just the conveyor belt on the inside of the building that caught fire," notes Penner. 

Though there is some smoke damage and now a lot of water on the floor, Penner says there was no structural damage. He adds nobody was injured. 

According to Penner, crews had the scene cleared by about 2 pm.