Source: Globe and Mail

Ottawa news anchor Max Keeping had already started packing up the memories of a 37-year-long career - the awards, the pictures, mementos from viewers.

"My office," he said yesterday, "was a bit of a museum piece."

Now it's all gone - from his Order of Canada to his passport to his income tax receipts - destroyed in a massive fire that gutted the local CTV newsroom yesterday, less than two months shy of Mr. Keeping's retirement.

The biggest loss, he said, are the many photographs he had saved of the children he met during his charity work for CHEO, the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario.

"Some very treasured memories are in ashes," said Mr. Keeping, who learned about the fire in a phone call at 5:30 in the morning. "But I do have those memories, and nobody got hurt, so we're very grateful for that."

Investigators are still trying to determine what caused the fire, and the extent of the damage, which has been estimated at more than $2.5-million. An unknown amount of archival news footage - going back decades - was also lost.

It took 70 firefighters and more than a dozen trucks two hours to bring the fire under control. A security guard on duty at the time escaped unharmed. But while flames were contained to the second storey, neither the extent of the smoke damage nor what can be salvaged from the remains is yet known. Archives of well-known Canadian television shows such as You Can't Do that on Television - Alanis Morissette's first show - The Galloping Gourmet, and The Amazing World of Kreskin were stored in a different part of the building.

But CTV staff won't know how much has been lost until they can get inside the building by the end of the week. In addition, Mr. Keeping had been working on a newsreel telling the history of the station, which is also likely destroyed. A firefighter told the anchor he had only been able to save a couple pictures from his office.

In the meantime, following a backup plan, staff have relocated to the newsroom of their sister station, the A-Channel, in downtown Ottawa. They were set to go ahead with a late-evening newscast last night, their early show having been previously pre-empted by the Super Bowl.

"It wasn't an office that you went to," said Mr. Keeping, pointing out that many employees had been with the station for decades. "This was very much a home."

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