The Saskatoon Fire Department says the cause of the two-alarm fire at Saskatoon’s P&H Mill on 33rd Street last Friday was accidental.

They say the fire originated in a piece of machinery on the fourth floor where a malfunction of the machine created the point of ignition. The fire then traveled through the mill process piping and spread to the sixth floor, which sustained considerable damage. The total damage from the fire is still being assessed however the fire investigator estimates that the damage will exceed 5 million dollars.

The call came in at 9:33 a.m. Friday morning. When fire crews arrived, staff had evacuated and reported a fire in a piece of machinery on the fourth floor and when crews put out that fire, they noticed a hot exhaust pipe coming off of the piece of equipment. Firefighters followed it to the sixth floor, where they discovered a substantial fire. A ladder truck was then used to flow water onto the fire for 30 minutes.

The extreme cold fire crews were dealing with not only impacted the firefighters themselves, but they were also faced with frozen, broken and tangled hose lines, and frozen ladders.