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WATCH ABOVE: Hundreds of people were forced from their homes Friday when a massive blaze broke out in a Clareview condo building. Shallima Maharaj reports.

EDMONTON – An Edmonton condo building that caught fire Friday evening will be a total loss.

About $16 million in damage was done the building, after a fire broke out shortly before 5 p.m. Friday.

Edmonton Fire Rescue crews were called to the four-storey building on Clareview Station Drive in northeast Edmonton around 4:50 p.m. Heavy black smoke and flames could be seen for blocks, coming from the top of the building. Within minutes, a second alarm was called and shortly after, a third.

Upwards of 200 people were forced from their homes while crews battled the blaze. People in the building across the parking lot were also forced out, but were able to return home Friday night.

About 155 people have been displaced from the directly affected area. In total, 28 suites were impacted.

Fire crews said Saturday it will be some time before those in the affected wing of the building will be able to return home. The property management company has hired 24-hour security to prevent looting.

On Friday evening, Edmonton Fire Chief Ken Block said it s believed the fire started on the balcony of a third or fourth-floor unit and quickly spread into the attic.

In the attic, it s really an unprotected space. So once that fire extends into the attic space we ve got big problems, he said Friday night.

Block said the fire was extremely difficult to fight. He explained that fires in four-story buildings are hard to fight because they re essentially high-rise buildings on their sides.

If you can visualize that structure standing up, you re looking at a 10 or a 12-storey building, he said. It s a very difficult fire to fight. The type of construction we re looking at is very vulnerable to this type of fire, especially if it starts on the outside of the building.

It s a son of a gun to fight and it s very difficult to extinguish.

WATCH: Edmonton fire chief speaks about fighting the difficult condo blaze in Clareview 

About 60 firefighters spent hours battling the blaze Friday. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries in the fire. One sustained a back injury and both were treated on scene for heat-related injuries.

Firefighting is an inherently dangerous business and when you get a fire moving that quickly, with that amount of energy and heat, a structure can fail very quickly.

One resident sustained minor smoke inhalation.

Block estimates there are 80 to 100 units in the building. Fire crews contained the blaze to one section of the building; that section is expected to be a complete loss.

The people in the affected wing of this building, no, they re not coming home tonight, said Block.

WATCH: Raw video of the condo fire from the Global 1 news helicopter, as of 5 p.m. and 6:25 p.m. Friday.

Raw Video: Fire crews battle blaze at Clareview condo building