New Westminster fire tears through building, destroys several businesses
Posted May 24, 2021 5:28 am.
Last Updated May 24, 2021 1:57 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NEW WESTMINSTER (NEWS 1130) — New Westminster Fire crews battled a fire raging in the city’s downtown core Monday morning.
The fire, which was first spotted at around 3 a.m., shut down Columbia Street between 6th and 4th streets.
New Westminster Fire Chief Tim Armstrong explains there were some tense moments for firefighters.
“Upon arrival, [crews] found heavy smoke pressurize in the building. They made an interior attack. And due to the age of the building and the structure and the level of involvement, they retreated out and we went into a defensive fire attack on the building,” he says.
“We’ve had a complete roof collapse on the building, and our biggest concern was saving the adjacent property, which was the Columbia SkyTrain station.”
Armstrong says crews are still trying to determine the area of origin where the fire started.
Four businesses in the area of Columbia and Church Street have been damaged, “a couple of restaurants, a tattoo parlour, commercial space upstairs, a nightclub in the rear,” but no one’s been hurt.
“The biggest challenge with any of these old 100-year-old structures is their construction.
“A lot of renovations over the years, a lot of void spaces, so fire tends to travel rapidly through those void spaces. Thankfully, there’s a good firewall separation between this fire and the adjacent property.”
Staff at one of the restaurants impacted, The Heritage Grill, have been at the site watching crews extinguish the fire.
“Thankfully the fire did not spread to the Heritage Grill or the two other ground floor businesses,” a Facebook post reads. “That being said however there will be extensive smoke and water damage. At the moment we have no information on the cause of the fire. It may be several weeks or even months before a structural assessment can be conducted and we are able to gain access to assess the situation in full.”
He adds that crews have “some ideas” of the cause but cannot tell the public yet.
Armstrong says nobody was inside the building at the time.
According to the City of New Westminster, “power has been turned off affecting the 400/500 block of Columbia St. and the 400 block of Carnarvon St.”
Expo Line Columbia Station was closed for several hours but reopened around 8:45 a.m.
Expect delays if you’re driving through the area or use an alternate route while emergency crews knock down the fire.
For traffic updates, tune into NEWS 1130 for the latest reports 10 minutes on the ones. Or visit NEWS 1130 Traffic on Twitter.
