The cause has yet to be determined, but a fire at AkzoNobel on Wednesday, April 9, 2025 caused significant damage to the building, contents and fire apparatus.
AkzoNobel produces paint and coatings, but specifically in Port Hope they produce wood coatings.
At approximately 2 p.m. Port Hope Fire and Emergency Services were dispatched to the business located at 155 Rose Glen Road in Port Hope.
While crews were responding they were updated that it was a working structure fire.
Port Hope Fire Chief Jason Williams was the first on scene and was told employees had been evacuated.
Williams was told the fire appeared to be in the north east corner of the building.
“Making our way over there we could see smoke and visible flames emanating from what was deemed to be the mixing area of the facility.”
“Fire was emanating from the roof and smoke were venting from the windows and doors.”
An aerial truck was immediately set up to knock down the flames in a offensive attack while conducting a primary search to confirm there was no one in the building.
“While conducting offensive fire suppression conditions of the fire changed due to the fact that it was above our staff (in the ceiling/roof area).”
Williams ordered all firefighters to exit the building due to the danger of the roof potentially collapsing.
Using the high pressure monitor from the aerial, firefighters were able to slow the spread of the fire that was in the roof area.
“Because of the nature of the construction, it was a very difficult fire to get to in the roof cavity.”
Williams said there were multiple layers of steel, rubber and foam.
Once it was deemed safe, firefighters went onto the roof and pulled back layers of the roof to expose the fire.
“Once we were able to get the seed of the fire identified and extinguished, we did have spread throughout the roof structure. Because of the multiple layers of roof over the years, it made it extremely difficult to locate.”
“It took a lot of personnel to get into the roof structure to apply water and suppress the fire.”
Fire damage was contained to the north east area of the building but there is significant smoke damage throughout the building.
Although the sprinkler system did deploy, Williams said it was unsuccessful suppressing the fire in the early stages during the fires development.
“Therefore we had fire spread throughout the roof.”
And once the fire is in the roof area, the sprinkler system is essentially useless.
“That’s a worst case scenario for us because the fire is above the heat alarm detectors and fire alarm detectors and above the sprinklers which would suppress the fire.”
Port Hope Fire and Emergency Services received mutual aid (assistance) from Cobourg Fire Department, Alnwick/Haldimand Township, Hamilton Township for standby and drone support and hazmat (hazardous materials) support from Cameco.
“It was definitely a all hands response and great team work from all our mutual aid partners and Cameco.”
There were 40 firefighters from Port Hope Fire and Emergency Services along with all 14 of their fire apparatus at the scene.
“There is extensive property damage and that business will be out of operation for quite a period of time.”
It’s believed the fire originated in the mixing room, but it’s unknown at this point if it started, but investigators will try and determine in the coming days the exact cause.
Williams also stated due to the nature of the product and chemicals at the business it had a “severe impact” on firefighting equipment including bunker gear, masks, helmets, self contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), hoses, ladders, tools along with fire apparatus.
“Unfortunately we have a lot of equipment that’s taken out of service and needs to be especially decontaminated.”
“Most likely, there is going to be a massive replacement of equipment that is going to be required.”
Approximately 80% of the hose needs to be decontaminated and at least 18 SCBA’s.
Personal will be going over the inventory of what needs to be decontaminated and what can be used for the next call and most importantly what firefighters were exposed too.
A number of fire apparatus may have to be taken out of service until such time they can be decontaminated.
Firefighters were on scene for over eight hours extinguishing the fire.
Williams said no one was hurt and although there is extensive damage to the building, contents and fire equipment – “it could have been much, much worse.”
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
