Flames spread fast through a Kelowna business complex because the 45-year-old building didn’t have the kind of firewalls that would be required today.
An entire section of the Blue Heights business park, with six premises, was destroyed Tuesday in an early morning blaze that sparked a call-out for off-duty firefighters and even triggered an air quality advisory.
Once flames reached the roof of the strip-mall, there was little to stop them from racing the entire length of the building in the 2700 block of Highway 97 North.
“The older buildings like this, they really didn’t put any firestops in there,” Shayne Kiehlbauch, a Kelowna Fire Department platoon captain, said in an interview later Tuesday.
“The roof truss is just one massive structure all the way across. So if you get a fire in one unit, it just travels from that unit to the next, to the next, to the next,” he said.
“Now, strip malls might have two or three businesses, then there’ll be a concrete block wall that goes up through the roof and even two or three feet above it,” he said. “That prevents a fire from spreading like this one did.”
The northernmost section of the distinctive blue-roofed business park, which has five separate buildings, was destroyed by the fire, which started about 2 am
Despite the early morning hour, there were some people inside one of the businesses. They all managed to get out and no one was injured.
It was too risky for firefighters to enter the building because of heavy fire conditions and the unstable structure, said Scott Clarke, another KFD platoon captain.
A general alarm was sounded, which means all available firefighters – both on and off duty – were expected to respond. Almost 50 firefighters finally brought the blaze under control.
Damage was extensive and heavy equipment was used to clear away some of the rubble. The cause is unknown and is being investigated.
Because of the blaze, the provincial Ministry of Environment and Interior Health issued an air quality advisory.
“A large structural fire overnight and an atmospheric inversion this morning have created conditions in which emitted smoke and particulates have been trapped in the valley, near ground level,” the advisory stated.
