 Firefighters work at the scene of a fire that gutted the CTV Ottawa newsroom on Merivale Rd. early Sunday morning. (DOUG HEMPSTEAD/QMI Agency)
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OTTAWA — Anchor Max Keeping usually tells his audience about fires in his city, but Sunday he found himself reporting on the blaze that gutted his own newsroom.
The blaze early Sunday morning destroyed CTV’s Ottawa newsroom at its local station, CJOH-TV. Damages were estimated at more than $2.5 million, the network said on its website.
Among the losses were the local news archives of Ottawa’s history and the 37-year video history of Keeping, who is set to retire April 1, CTV said.
It could be days before staff can return to the building, but plans to continue production from the A Channel building in the Byward Market were moving forward, CTV said.
There happened to be no regular 6 p.m. newscast planned for Sunday because CTV was carrying the Super Bowl.
But the station did air a live news break from a satellite truck outside the building on Merivale Road.
The news team planned to air their 11:30 newscast on Sunday night from the A Channel studio.
Newsroom staff have already held their first meeting about resuming broadcasting, Keeping said in an interview with CTV News Channel.
CTV stations in Montreal, Toronto and Saskatchewan were sending some cameras and edit suites to Ottawa, he added.
“We have CTV facilities downtown that we’re going to immediately move into and broadcast. So we’re assuring the public that we’ll continue to present our information packages as normally as possible over the next couple of days and weeks,” said Keeping.
It’s not known what caused the blaze, which began on the second floor of the building sometime before 4:30 a.m.
It took 70 firefighters and 18 fire trucks more than two hours to bring the flames under control.
No injuries were reported however a security guard was in the building when the blaze broke out.
CJOH TV, which signed on back on March 12, 1961, broadcast the first “Question Period” and was home to shows such as “You Can’t Do That on Television“ — which was Alanis Morissette’s first television show — “The Galloping Gourmet“, “The Amazing Kreskin,“ as well as two soap operas.
The late ABC “World News Tonight” anchor Peter Jennings started his professional career with CJOH TV during its early years, where he anchored local newscasts and hosted a teen dance show, “Saturday Date.”
“There’s a tremendous amount of history in the building. The part that is totally gutted by the fire is the current news operation,” Keeping told CTV.
