$5K in damages after 2nd fire at Richmond Tavern building in London, Ont. in 4 months

Tuesday's fire at the building that houses the Richmond Tavern in downtown London was the second blaze there in less than four months.

Damage is estimated at $5,000 following the second fire in four months at the building that houses The Richmond Tavern in downtown London, Ont.

Platoon Chief Gary Mosburger with the London Fire Department told Global News that a 911 call came in reporting smoke coming from a wall in the building on Tuesday morning.

Mosburger said crews arrived within four minutes and quickly put out the fire. The fire does not appear suspicious but the exact cause remains under investigation.

“People had evacuated prior to our arrival. Obviously, the quick action by those tenants inside the building was part of the good news story here of being able to contain the fire to a very small area, rather than it going unnoticed and unreported, in a way that was able for us to get to it quickly and put that fire out.”

London police tweeted just after 8:30 a.m. Tuesday that Richmond Street was closed to northbound traffic from King Street and to southbound traffic from Dundas Street as crews worked to battle a blaze in the area. Mosburger told Global News shortly after 9:30 a.m. that southbound traffic had resumed and one lane was to reopen heading northbound momentarily.

This is the second fire at the building in the past four months.

Mosburger stressed that he was not involved in the response to the first fire and does not have information on it, but he did say that typically, information is shared within the fire prevention division, which investigates the fires.

“If there is commonalities, then obviously, we work with the building owner to try and rectify those things.”