World News for Students of English

31-07-2014 15:00

A three-alarm fire ripped through an industrial complex in Ontario, Canada, in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Sending fireballs into the night sky and producing smoke that affected residents from as far as the mountain area, the blaze erupted around midnight when cylinders filled with flammable liquids exploded.

About 75 firefighters and 24 fire trucks were called to the scene. Fire fighters arrived to find a “heavy volume of fire” ripping through the building, and immediately upgraded it to three alarms. Residents in a several-block radius around the scene were temporarily evacuated.

The 100-year old building housed several auto body shops and many cars inside were damaged. Some firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion but no other injuries were reported.

Difficult words: three-alarm fire (a fire where something serious happened), rip (move quickly and destroy), fireball (fire in the shape of a ball), blaze (fire), cylinder (container with circular ends), temporarily (only for a short period of time), auto body shop (shop which repairs the outer parts of a car), heat exhaustion (being exhausted/extremely tired because of the heat).

Source: www.itn.co.uk