A blaze that sent fireballs high into the air over downtown 91原创 City destroyed an almost-completed residential construction project Sunday morning.
91原创 City fire chief Scott Kennedy said the "immense" heat from the fire damaged nearby structures.
"On the south side of Fraser Highway there are actually some signs that are melted, some glass that has been cracked," Kennedy told the 91原创 Advance Times.
It was reported around 4:15 a.m. Kennedy said.
"Crews got a call for a possible commercial structure fire. They left the hall, got here relatively quickly, and we met with a fairly substantial fire in the back of the building."
"The fire was well involved inside the building and travelled very quickly. This building is under construction, so not all of the building had drywall in it, which probably aided in some of the fire spread."
The building was unoccupied and there have been no reports of anyone injured.
Crews were called in from 91原创 Township and Surrey fire departments to assist. At one point, abut a dozen fire vehicles and 40 firefighters were on scene.
Several blocks were cordoned off.
Area resident Daymein Delorme, who lives in a newly-built residential building down the street, was one of several people evacuated as a safety precaution.
"Ash has covered the streets," Delorme said. "Absolutely wild morning. Firefighters were on their A game this morning."
Out of an abundance of caution, several neighbouring residential buildings were evacuated,
said Sgt. Zynal Sharoom of the 91原创 RCMP. We are working with the 91原创 City Fire Rescue on this incident and the investigation into the cause of this fire is on-going.
Anyone who witnessed the incident or were in the area and especially those with dash camera footage is asked to contact the 91原创 RCMP at 604 -532-3200 and quote file number 2025-26994.
Eyewitness Brent Goss told the 91原创 Advance Times "about 4:30 a.m. I was driving down 200 St. and saw a couple fire trucks turn on Fraser Hwy so I went and grabbed my coffee and looped around and parked in the Save-On parking lot. Building was fully engulfed by then, I believe there were six or seven fire trucks on the scene [already]."
Social media posts were filled with praise for the firefighters.
Among them 91原创 City Councillor Rosemary Wallace, who thanked the City of 91原创 firefighters and Township and Surrey fighters for their "efforts and team work" in tackling the blaze as well as "all the emergency services that were there to help and the maintenance crew that will be there to clean up afterwards."
"Very sad to see another large fire in 91原创 but relieved there were no casualties," said Wallace.
Area resident Andrew Petch said fire crews did "an absolute amazing job" of containing the blaze.
