An entire commercial plaza in Caledonia may have to be torn down following a significant fire.

It was around 2:30 a.m. Thursday when firefighters were called to Slack Plaza on Argyle Street.

Raymond Pearie had made the 911 call that brought them there.

After delivering newspapers in the area, he saw smoke coming from the back of a plaza.

He says he saw a van on fire, which in turn ignited a truck, a car and the entire building.

“It came up right through the roof, and there were flames everywhere,” he said.

“The flames were pretty high – over 30 feet in the air.”

Firefighters from Caledonia, Cayuga, Jarvis and Dunnville were brought in to battle the flames.

Their actions focused mainly on preventing the fire from spreading past the plaza, but they remained at the site for most of Thursday, putting out hotspots.

The plaza’s steel roof collapsed around mid-morning, leaving Nicholas George’s upper-floor apartment in a state he described as “not even recognizable.”

George said he awoke a little after 2 a.m. to his fire alarm going off.

After determining that nothing in his unit was on fire, he said, he opened his front door and saw his neighbours preparing to leave the building.

Making his way outside, his thoughts turned to his vehicle parked in a carport – only to quickly realize that it wouldn’t be salvageable.

“My truck was totally in flames,” he said.

Everyone was able to get outside the plaza without injury.

At one point around 1 p.m., a flare-up near the top of the plaza sent thick clouds of smoke into the sky.

One of the tenants of the building is Haldimand-Norfolk Community Seniors Support Services, which provides Meals on Wheels, transportation for seniors and other services.

A spokesperson for that organization said that none of its services are affected, and office work will be done out of a site in Hagersville.

Investigators believe the fire began on the north side of the building.

Damage is expected to top $1 million.

The cause of the fire has not been determined, but fire officials said they had no reason to consider it suspicious.