The front doors of the New Delhi restaurant on 29 Street are broken where firefighters forced there way in Dec. 9.
(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)
December 09, 2014 - 1:33 PM
VERNON - Police and the Vernon Fire Department are looking into the cause of a suspicious fire at the New Delhi Restaurant in Vernon.
Deputy fire chief Lawrie Skolrood says the fire started inside the building sometime before 3:15 a.m. when the building’s sprinkler system went off and triggered an alarm.
Firefighters forced their way into the building by busting open the front doors, but by the time they got there, the fire was already out.
“The sprinklers did actually put out the fire. It’s lucky they were up and working for sure,” Skolrood says.
How big the fire was is hard to say, but Skolrood says it had to be hot enough to trigger the sprinkler sensors.
Restoration workers are working to clean up fire and water damage inside the building. The owners of the business and the owners of the building have been notified of the fire and the restaurant is closed at least for the day.
Fire investigators will be on scene Tuesday afternoon looking for clues on how the suspicious fire started.
‘‘The nature of the fire, you know, it (accidental fire) really doesn’t happen the way it happened here. That’s what makes it suspicious,” Skolrood says.
Mounties and firefighters are working together to determine the cause and nothing has been ruled out.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infonews.ca or call 250-309-5230. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
—This story was edited at 2 p.m. Dec. 9 to include an update from deputy fire chief Lawrie Skolrood and to change the photo.
News from © iNFOnews, 2014