Fire officials are calling a fire that destroyed an abandoned building near Marine Drive early on Saturday morning "suspicious."
On Jan. 4, Burnaby firefighters received several calls from residents saying they could see smoke and fire billowing from a property in the 7500 block of Willard Street. Fire crews arrived shortly after 7:45 a.m. and fought the blaze for nearly four hours before it was put out, according to assistant fire chief Mark Fletcher.
The fire department is now working to uncover the cause of the blaze, which has been deemed suspicious, Fletcher told the NOW.
"Just the rate that the fire got going, the amount of fire, and, I mean, it was burning really intense at the time we got there - on a Saturday morning at quarter to eight in the morning?" he said. "So to get going to the degree that it was going in that short of time, it's very suspicious."
But despite Fletcher's suspicions, investigators have yet to find anything to suggest the fire was the result of arson.
"It's still under investigation," he added. "Our investigators were down there most of the day (Monday)."
Arson investigators from both the Burnaby Fire Department and RCMP were expected to return to the site Tuesday to continue combing through the evidence in order to determine the cause and whether the fire was deliberately set.
The fire, which broke out in an abandoned building on an old industrial, is not the first one firefighters have responded to on the property. In recent years, the department has responded to a number of blazes in other buildings on the abandoned site, according to Fletcher.
While the building was abandoned, Fletcher said there was a good chance people were squatting in it at the time of the blaze.
"We always have to assume that in abandoned buildings, especially down in that area. It's pretty secluded down around there, so there's a good possibility," he added.
The fire department is expected to release more information later this week.
Check back at www.burnabynow.com for updates on this ongoing story.
