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Owner of Thorold business damaged in Sunday night blaze wants to know how it started

"No one has been in here since Friday", says Jeff Rusk

A fire at Ruskcast in the industrial area near the Thorold tunnel on Sunday night did not wreak as much havoc as feared – but owner Jeff Rusk is quizzed on how the blaze started.

“No one has been in here since Friday. It is kind of weird that this would happen on a Sunday. When we leave at 2:30, all the machinery is cold”, he told Thorold News on the scene of the fire as product from the building was being moved with a forklift.

He says he was alerted of the situation around 7:30 on Sunday when a passerby had called emergency services after noticing smoke coming out of the building, that the company is leasing from the property owner.

According to Rusk, the fire is believed to have started under the upper ceiling, made of wood and separated from the interior by a steel inner roof.

“There is no machinery or wiring up there. It is bizarre”, Rusk continued.

He now has to look for solutions for his 25 employees working at the plant that could find themselves without work for weeks as the company rebuilds at the site where they have been operating for the past 11 years.

Ruskcast supplies stainless steel products for different industries in the agricultural sector, among others.

The closure comes at a particularly bad time for the company.

“Our orderbooks are the biggest they have ever been”, Rusk said.

The Ontario Fire Marshal is investigating the fire.

Police have not been involved yet, a spokesperson for NRP said.


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Ludvig Drevfjall

About the Author: Ludvig Drevfjall

Ludvig Drevfjall has been the editor of ThoroldToday since January 2020. He has worked as a journalist in Sweden, British Columbia and Ontario
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