'We're losing too much connection from the past.' Heritage advocates fear a heritage building devastated by fire cannot be salvaged

London fire crews arrived shortly after five Saturday evening and quickly determined the best they could do was limit fire spread.

 

"Crews did a fantastic job," says London Fire Platoon Chief Colin Shewell. "They contained the fire to the building. We kept crews on-scene overnight, just to make sure there was no hot spots."

 

Sunday morning, all that remained on the property, at 850 Highbury Avenue North, was a burned-out shell. Members of the London Fire Investigations Unit went up in a bucket to survey the damage, taking pictures and videos.
 

Firefighters responded to a fire t the former psychiatric hospital on Highbury Avenue in London, Ont. on Saturday, Mar. 18, 2023. (Gerry Dewan/CTV News London)

London Police investigators were also on scene, including members of the Forensic Investigations Unit. Shewell says the determination was made that it was too dangerous to go in, "Investigation will continue. We're working with our partners to determine next steps. It is unsafe to enter the building and do a further investigation."

 

Among those interested in the next-steps are local heritage preservation advocates.

Firefighters responded to a fire t the former psychiatric hospital on Highbury Avenue in London, Ont. on Saturday, Mar. 18, 2023. (Gerry Dewan/CTV News London)

 

"We're losing too much connection from the past," says Joe O’Neil, who is among those lobbying to save some of the structures on the hospital site. He says the chapel and the former recreation centre were viewed as worth of saving, and feels the rec centre would have been easiest to save. "The building was solid. It was, basically, a shell. There was no interior walls to, really, rip out. You could have turned that into a community centre with a heartbeat. Of all the buildings, that was the one we could have re-purposed quickest and probably cheapest."

 

Old Oak Properties, the owner, has faced criticism in the past for failing to properly secure vacant buildings, as they move to build multiple high-rise towers at the site. O'Neil now admits the challenges of doing that may be too great, "Everything in society seems to be breaking down. Daily I see people walking down the street with backpacks filled with bolt cutters and break-in tools."

 

Demolition of buildings has been taking place at the site, and two heavy construction vehicles appeared at the ready near the recreation building.

 

Shewell says nothing is likely to happen at the site any time soon, "We're going to be putting up security fencing, putting security on there, and talking to city staff as well as partners with interest in that location."