Multiple Alberni Valley fire departments were called to the waterfront on Monday to put out a structure fire on a piece of private industrial property.
Port Alberni Fire Department Chief Mike Owens said the department’s duty crew was heading out to a first responder call on Third Avenue Monday evening (April 15) when they noticed the fire.
“As the crew was exiting from the station, they observed smoke coming from near the waterfront,” he said.
Once firefighters realized the smoke was coming from a structure fire, they put out an automatic aid call to Beaver Creek, Cherry Creek and Sproat Lake Volunteer Fire Departments. The wooden structure was located on a piece of private property in the 5000 block of Dunbar Street, although it was accessed off of Harbour Road.
“It was a building that had apparently been used as a lunch room in the past, but it had been vacant for a period of time,” said Owens.
The building was “quite unstable,” said Owens, and had to be dismantled to remove any safety hazards. The fire was extinguished just after 8 p.m.
Owens said there was “no one present” in the building at the time of the fire, but the property owners had been “experiencing some difficulty” with people trespassing on the property.
“Because of that, we had the RCMP start a file,” he said.
At this time, the cause of the fire is unknown, and investigators don’t know yet if it was accidental or suspicious.