Fire investigators list cause of Glenmore construction-site fire as 'undetermined'

Photo: Brad Farrell

Kelowna fire inspector Paul Johnston tells Castanet his team has wrapped up their investigation into what caused the three-alarm fire at the intersection of Glenmore and Union Roads.

"We conducted our investigation with the RCMP and insurance investigators. The accelerant-dog was brought in but it didn't find any hits at the fire scene. So we are marking this down as undetermined and closing the file."

The apartment building was under construction at the time of the fire that started at approximately 6 a.m. on April 6.

A crane being used to erect the building was deemed a hazard after fire crews managed to douse the blaze, preventing fire investigators from doing a thorough investigation until this week.

Concern over the fire-ravaged crane forced the evacuation of homes in the immediate vicinity and the fire itself damaged at least one of the adjacent townhomes. Once the crane was inspected and taken down, evacuated residents were allowed home on Tuesday night.

Johnson says because the wood building was under construction, finding the cause of the blaze was never going to be easy.

"There was nothing that we found at the scene that would indicate it was a suspicious fire."

Johnson indicated investigators use photographic and video evidence from the public in the course of many of their fire investigations. "If people see a fire, we encourage them to take a picture (and video) and contact us."

Johnson says investigators go over the photos and video to determine where the fire may have started.

"Once we figure that out we can pinpoint the location and work our way deeper into the point of origin."