The Montreal fire department responded to three alarm blaze at an abandoned church on Cremaze between 8th and 9th avenue on Sunday morning in the city's Saint-Michel neighborhood.
"It was in the residence in the back of the church that the fire started," said fire department spokesperson, Ian Ritchie. "It's a building that's vacant and for us we (needed to) take precaution. Not knowing the structural integrity of the building, we have a defensive attack which means we fight the fire from outside using large diamater hoses."
The call to 911 about the fire was received around 3:30am.
"The church is situated very close to the fire department," said Ritchie. "The station arrived within about a minute of being assigned to the (fire)."
Montreal's cold weather also complicated efforts to get the fire under control.
"The water was freezing very quickly. We were having problems with the equipment freezing, the equipment on the firemen freezing too."
Because firefighters were unable to get into the building, they had to fight it from outside and that created a significant haze or fog. That's what what was freezing on all of the equipment.
Strong winds this morning also ended up blowing the freezing fog and haze onto the Metropolitaine Expressway, which ended up causing a few early morning traffic headaches for motorists.
More than a 100 firefighters were needed to get the blaze under control.