Over $4 million in damages possible after fire at Trenton Walmart

Fire trucks sit outside the Walmart in Trenton hours after a fire broke out in the storage room of the store. Photo by Brock Ormond, QNet News

By Matthew Murray

BELLEVILLE – The Walmart in Trenton remains closed after a fire in a storage room caused massive smoke damage on Tuesday morning, Quinte West Fire Department says.

Deputy Fire Chief Dan Smith says the fire broke out in the back storage room and was put out quickly by firefighters. But the smoke damage was the bigger problem for the store he says, with the entire building having filled with smoke.

“The damage was contained to the back storage room to just one area of racking,” he said. “It was more of the smoke damage that was the major issue which was spread through the entire store.”

It caused nearly $4 million worth of damage to the store, Smith said, and that anything inside the store that wasn’t in boxes or packaging would have been vulnerable to the smoke.

“The original numbers that were floating around was about $10,000 in actual fire damage and then around the $4 million mark in smoke damage although that is unconfirmed numbers,” he added.

The cause of the fire is being investigated by the OPP, Quinte West Fire and the fire marshall’s office and that no information regarding the cause of the fire could be given, Smith said.

Walmart was first expected to be closed for a week but Smith said based on the damages that it may be a little longer before it reopens to the public.

A job posting appeared on the Indeed job board website on Wednesday afternoon for 100 clean-up worker positions for Walmart through U3S Hiring. U3S is looking for workers to work around six to seven days a week for two to three weeks to clean up, the ad said.