WHITE ROCK — Residents woke up to the smell of smoke early Tuesday as a fire tore through a business along the city’s waterfront.

By the time firefighters arrived to Gelateria Italia, a gelato and coffee shop located at 14901 on Marine Drive, a three-alarm blaze had gutted the building, leaving most of it unsalvageable.

According to White Rock Fire Chief Phil Lemire, crews received a call around 7 a.m. reporting a fire in the building adjacent to the gelato shop. However, when crews arrived on scene, they discovered the fire was actually in the rear of the gelato building, on the second floor.

Due to size of the blaze, additional backup was called in from the Surrey Fire Department and Lemire said with the access to the building being somewhat difficult, they decided to fight the fire from outside.

“It is an older building and with the make and construction, we’re not going to put any people inside,” he said.

By 9 a.m. crews had the site contained and Lemire said they were still working to determine what caused the fire. Around 1,000 residents were without power due to the fire, and people on both sides of the building were evacuated for good measure.

Darcie Ell, who lives in a condo behind the gelato shop, recalled the dramatic events upon waking up to the blaze.

“I smelled the smoke and looked around my condo and thought something was burning, but then I looked outside and it was crazy,” she said.

Her son, Zac, said, from their apartment the wreckage of the building was like “an abyss.”

“The second floor is on the ground below it. It’s completely gone,” he said adding he saw the blaze when he got up at seven. “The flames were probably a good 20 feet at the highest point.

“We actually thought it was going to spread over to our building and we were getting ready to leave. I actually had my bag packed and everything.”

As of Wednesday morning, Lemire said their crews were still investigating the cause of the fire, and that demolition had begun at the site. He added there was no smoke damage to any of the adjacent buildings.

Youtube video by Kelly Breaks.

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