There were no injuries after fire broke out at the Pine Ridge Elementary construction site in Winkler Wednesday afternoon. Black smoke could be seen billowing from the roof at approximately 2:30 p.m.

Winkler Fire Chief Richard Paetzold explains construction crews were roofing when the fire broke out, though the investigation continues.

"Basically what we know at this point is that, to the best of our knowledge, there are no injuries and everyone on site was safe. That's our number one priority," Garden Valley School Division Superintendent Todd Monster says.

While total damages, and impact on the construction timeline is unknown, Monster praised the Winkler Fire Department, Winkler Police Service and EMS for their quick response.

"We're reminded of how fortunate we are to have great emergency response personnel in the City of Winkler," he says. "We're very appreciative of the work that they do."

Currently, GVSD staff continue to gather information on the extent of the damage before planning next steps.

"We don't have any idea of our timeline yet, we have to let the fire department do their job first."

Aerial photo by Chris Unrau