Thick smoke filled the air over east London on Monday afternoon as firefighters battled a large fire involving railway ties in the Old East Village (OEV) area.
Emergency personnel were on-site advising residents near Elias and Dorinda streets to evacuate and shut their windows to prevent inhaling the smoke.
Fire crews arrived at the scene just east of a CPKC rail yard off Elias Street around 4:20 p. m. Several local businesses were evacuated.
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Emergency crews evacuated nearby businesses as firefighters continue to respond to a fire after a pile of rail ties caught near Anderson Brewery and the Junction Climbing Centre in London’s Old East Village. (Andrew Lupton/CBC)
London resident Stephanie Marry was in her backyard when she spotted a “giant black smoke cloud” and went to investigate.
“It was huge,” she said.
Marry mentioned that she stood about 15 meters away behind a tree but could still feel the heat from the flames. Police advised onlookers to leave the area and avoid breathing in the fumes.
She estimated that the fire reached about nine meters high and stretched 14 meters wide when she got there.
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Firefighters look on from railway crossing at rail tie fire near CPKC rail yard. (Andrew Lupton/CBC)
Gary Bridge, deputy chief of fire operations for London Fire, explained that the railway ties are treated with preservative, making them tough to extinguish. These ties are often soaked in creosote.
“We will need a backhoe to continue full extinguishment,” he said late Monday afternoon.
“There is a chemical in [railway ties] that can produce some off-gassing so we recommended home owners in the area close their windows and evacuated a nearby business,” said Bridge.
He noted that while they had things under control by 5:30 p. m., it wasn’t completely out yet.
“Deep within [the pile], we need to make sure that we pull the ties away to extinguish those flames that exist underneath,” he said.
The cause of the fire is currently being investigated.
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Smoke from a railway tie fire in London’s Old East Village is seen on a Ministry of Transportation traffic camera along Hwy. 401 near Wonderland Road on June 1, 2026. (Ontario Ministry of Transportation)
The large plume of smoke was visible throughout much of the city and even from neighboring areas like Strathroy.
A similar incident occurred back in May 2024 when exhaust sparks likely ignited a CPKC train, leading flaming train cars through parts of town causing about $25,000 damage to rail cars and $10,000 damage to an office building.
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