Confidential documents belonging to the City of Ottawa may have been damaged in a fire on Tuesday at an industrial warehouse in city's east end, a municipal official says.

The warehouse, which belongs to the Boston-based Iron Mountain Records Management, contains archival files belonging to private and public organizations, including the city.

It wasn't clear on Wednesday which other groups may have stored documents at the warehouse, on Comstock Road in the Cyrville industrial area.

If any city records were destroyed or damaged, they might be irreplaceable, said the city's corporate services manager, Greg Geddes.
 
"You have only so many copies of things. Once they're gone, they're gone," he said.

Firefighter injured in blaze

Iron Mountain — which operates 850 record centres around the world — said the fire broke out at about 4 p.m. Tuesday.

All employees were safely evacuated, the company said in a written statement issued Wednesday.

While fire officials have yet to determine the cause of the blaze, the company says maintenance was being performed on the roof at the time the fire broke out. It wasn't immediately clear whether the two are related.
 
When firefighters arrived, they found the warehouse was so filled with smoke that they had to enter the building tethered to ropes for safety. One firefighter was treated in hospital for undisclosed injuries.

About 75 firefighters were called in to control the blaze, which was confined to a tightly packed third-floor record area containing sensitive and confidential documents.

The company has sent recovery teams to the warehouse to begin salvage operations.