Saint John fire officials are urging residents to remove snow from around fire hydrants after crews had to dig out a hydrant when responding to an apartment building fire on Monday morning.

Crews were called to 87 Broad St., in the city's south end, at around 11:45 a.m. and quickly extinguished the blaze in the basement after securing a water supply, platoon chief Steve Voutour said at the scene.

"It's a constant battle to try to get to a hydrant," Voutour said. "That's why we kind of hope citizens — I know they're busy and they have heavy workloads and everything else, but if there is a fire hydrant outside of your home or your apartment building, when you're out doing your shovelling, if you're capable and you're willing to do it, it's greatly appreciated that that hydrant does get cleaned out.

Saint John firefighters had to dig out the hydrant when they responded to a fire at 87 Broad St. on Monday morning. (CBC) "The Saint John works department and the Saint John fire department do get around as much as we can to try and clean out as many hydrants as we can, but with the snow that we've had in the last little while, it is a challenge."

The 12-unit New Brunswick Housing brick building was evacuated and no one was injured, although crews were still searching for a couple of pets, Voutour said.

A city transit bus was brought in to keep the displaced tenants warm.

Platoon chief Steve Voutour said it appears the fire was sparked when electricians inadvertently cut a power line. (CBC) Voutour said he expected tenants to be able to return to the building once all the smoke was cleared.

Broad Street was blocked off between Wentworth and Carmarthen streets during the emergency response.

The official cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but Voutour said electricians had been working in the three-storey building and it appears they inadvertently cut a power line, which sparked the blaze.

"Depending on the type of wire that you're dealing with, you could have upwards of 240 volts, and in a dry structure, it gets into dust and wood fibres and paper and things of that nature in the structure itself, and it doesn't take much to start a fire."