The Cambridge OPP detachment burned down one year ago

It's been exactly one year since a fire burned down the Cambridge OPP detachment at 500 Beaverdale Road. 

The site was left in ruins with damage pegged at $1.5 million.

Even the officers in the building didn't expect that the building was doomed when the fire started, since it looked so small.

Provincial Constable Lauren Ball was in the detachment when she was told to evacuate.

“We were all working in the office, it was just after 2:00 p.m.,” recalls Ball. “Around that time, our detachment commander alerted all the staff inside the building that he had observed some smoke. First he saw it outside his office window, he went outside to investigate the source of the smoke was coming from, and realized it was coming from our building. We all got our things and out we went.”

Constable Ball says they grabbed what they could, and at the same time never thinking that the detachment would be completely demolished.

Demolished it was, though, as the blaze ripped through the building, leaving the officers to watch in disbelief.

“At first it didn't seem like it would be much damage, but I guess maybe because the building was older and it was the roofing material that was burning, it proved pretty challenging to extinguish,” explains Ball. “You just don't really think it's going to happen. Even when the staff sergeant came out and told us 'everyone out,' no one was panicked or anything like that, and we didn't see anything, we didn't smell anything in the building, so you don't think it's a big deal.”

Cambridge Fire was on scene within a few minutes to try to contain the blaze, but to no avail.

That left some OPP officers working out of a mobile command centre on the property, while the rest worked out of Milton for two weeks.

After that, the officers worked out of the Cambridge Fire Station — next to those who had responded to the fire — until a temporary location was decided on at 1150 Franklin Boulevard.

They could be in that location for years, as plans for a new detachment are now in the hands of Infrastructure Ontario.

Constable Ball says the whole ordeal was surprisingly emotional, despite just being a workplace.

“It was quite surreal and you sympathize with anyone who's lost a home or anything like that,” explains Ball. “This was incredibly stressful and pretty emotional, too, and it was just our workplace. Although we spend a lot of time there and we have a lot of investment into it, it still wasn't our home. I certainly sympathize with anyone who's lost a home or something of great personal value in a fire.”

570 NEWS reached out to the Ontario Fire Marshal for an official cause of the fire, as well as Infrastructure Ontario for the progress on plans for a new detachment.