Burnaby Mounties are among the investigators combing through the scene of a fire that destroyed an abandoned building on Willard Street Saturday morning.
The fire started at about 7:45 a.m. on Jan. 4 in an old industrial building in the 7500 block of Willard Street near Marine Drive. Firefighters, who spent much of Saturday morning battling the blaze, are now investigating the cause of the fire, which has been deemed suspicious by the department.
"All the information we've received, it does look suspicious. An abandoned building at quarter to eight in the morning, to get it burning that quickly and that hard - that is, to me, suspicious," assistant fire chief Mark Fletcher told the Province.
Arson investigators from both the Burnaby Fire Department and RCMP are looking into the cause of the fire.
According to the RCMP, their role at this time is to assist the fire department investigators forensically – collecting evidence and processing the scene.
This is not the first time firefighters have been called to a fire at the Willard Street property. In recent years, the department has responded to a number of blazes in other buildings on the abandoned site, Fletcher said.
– With files from The Province
