A fire broke out at a Surrey strip mall in the early morning hours of Wednesday, March 14. (Photos: Shane Mackichan)

A fire broke out at a Surrey strip mall in the early morning hours of Wednesday, March 14. (Photos: Shane Mackichan)

UPDATE: Surrey crews still battling ‘hot spots’ at business park fire

A witness at the scene says 30 firefighters were called in to battle the early morning blaze in Newton

  • Mar. 14, 2018 12:00 a.m.

SURREY – Firefighters were called in to battle a large fire at a business park in Surrey early Wednesday morning.

It started around 1 a.m. in the 12900-block of 80th Avenue.

A witness at the scene said several businesses in the two-storey building are affected, and more than 30 firefighters were called in to fight the blaze.

At 8:30 a.m., Assistant Fire Chief Jason Cairney told the Now-Leader there are still one or two trucks on scene managing “hot spots” in the roof area.

It’s been a difficult fire to knock down, said Cairney.

“It gets stubborn when it gets into these roof structures. It’s hard to get at the place that’s burning at times, and there’s a lot of construction material,” he explained. “It’s pretty labour intensive work.”

Cairney said the unit of origin, and one or two beside it, have been affected by the fire, and “there could be some affectedness on other buildings based on the roof and where the fire travelled and what we’ve had to do to get at it.”

Footage from the scene shows large amounts of thick smoke billowing out the front of the building and flames shooting out the top.

During their efforts to put out the fire, firefighters appear to be cutting open a door to gain access to one of the businesses, On Side Restoration.

Cairney couldn’t identify the main businesses affected, because the “sign is all burnt off,” but did say it’s somewhere in the middle of the building.

At 6:37 a.m., Surrey’s Traffic Management Centre tweeted that 80th Avenue remained closed between 128th and 129th Streets.

No injuries have been reported.


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Surrey Now Leader