A fire broke out overnight at the Atwater Market, damaging several stores and part of the building.

While no one was hurt, the damage will require a big clean-up and a big price tag, too.

Employees working in the building overnight called 9-1-1 at 3:30 a.m. to report the fire. When firefighters arrived, smoke was filling the building and spewing outside.

“There was so much smoke in here,” said Claude Gatien, who was forced to throw away most of his inventory less than two months after taking over Les Fermes Dauphinais.

"We've got a lot of vegetables and fruits that we have to get rid of. The firemen pushed some fridges on the ground and they were full of fruits. All the lights inside, they busted, so everything is scrap.”

Gatien estimates an $8,000 - $10,000 loss.

“For us, it’s really bad, like we have to restart the inventory again. We just started in January, now we’ve got to reinvest again, restart,” he said.

Firefighters promptly put out the flames, and said the damage was limited and would likely cost $50,000 to repair.

“The fire was caused by a lightbulb that had exploded and the debris from the light had fallen onto combustible material,” explained Danny Ciavaglia of the Montreal Fire Department.

Sprinklers were able to control some of the fire, but firefighters had to break windows to gain access to the building and put out the rest of the flames.

That was cleaned up Friday morning, and temporary repairs were made until replacement windows could be installed.

Meanwhile tables full of vegetables and fruits were also knocked over, sending food to the ground.

Market workers spend Friday morning cleaning up the mess, while health inspectors determined what had to be thrown away and what could be salvaged.

“Any time there is an intervention involving a restaurant or any type of food, there is a food inspector that’s called on scene and after the fire intervention is complete, then the food inspector takes over to make sure that the proper measures are taken,” said Ciavaglia.

A representative from the Atwater Market said the second floor was untouched and so remained open on Friday.

The store owners on the ground level hope to reopen on Saturday.