Fire forces evacuation of Windsor, Ont., polling station

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In a case of the worst timing possible, Elections Canada was forced to scramble Monday morning to find a new election day polling location when a fire forced a shutdown of voting at the WFCU Centre.

“We’re crazy-busy trying to move to St. Joe’s high school,” an Elections Canada worker told the Star shortly before 11 a.m.

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She said the hope was to have the polling station set up and ready for Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore voters at St. Joseph’s Catholic High School, 2425 Clover Ave., within the hour.

A dozen Windsor Fire and Rescue Services vehicles had rushed shortly after 10 a.m. in response to reports of a working fire on the rooftop of the WFCU Centre at 8787 McHugh St. The fire was quickly brought under control.

With billowing black smoke visible for miles, the entire large east Windsor facility was evacuated. Windsor fire crews were urging the public to avoid the area, while Windsor Police Service units were called in to block off the area from traffic.

Swimmers still clad in bathing suits and wrapped in towels were among a large number of evacuees gathered in the parking lot, including City of Windsor and Windsor Spitfires employees.

Windsor police on social media issued an “important voting location and road closure update,” advising voters headed to the WFCU Centre to cast their election day ballots to proceed instead to St. Joe’s high school, which is located just over two kilometres east of the WFCU Centre.

Windsor’s fire department, after investigating the origin and cause of the fire, reported Monday afternoon that the fire caused over a million dollars in damages to “multiple solar panels” and roofing material.

As of noon on Monday, power to the entire complex remained shut off. In a news release later Monday, the city announced that, “out of an abundance of caution,” all programming at the WFCU Centre was cancelled until Tuesday at noon.

dschmidt@postmedia.com

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