Investigators are still looking into what caused a fire at an abandoned house in Silver Valley.
“We can say we’ve ruled out certain root causes but we haven’t been able to rule everything out,” said Maple Ridge fire chief Howard Exner.
At approximately 9:45 p.m. on Nov. 17 the Maple Ridge fire department were called to the fully involved house fire at the corner of 232 Street and 136 Avenue.
The gas and hydro to the building had been shut off. Natural causes have also been ruled out.
“It could be human caused,” said Exner, adding that doesn’t mean that it was arson, it could still be accidental.
He said he didn’t know if squatters were known to inhabit the building.
“It was another fire that came in late to us,” Exner said.
“The fire was well established before somebody phoned for the fire response. So when we arrived the building or the house was fully involved,” he explained saying that the first crews arriving on scene selected a defensive fire attack to extinguish the flames.
The fire was the second straight fire on a Friday night for the Maple Ridge fire department.
The previous Friday night, firefighters battled a major blaze at the former Mussalem Motors building at the corner of Lougheed Highway and 223rd Street in downtown Maple Ridge.
That commercial building was also extremely damaged, and was only made safe for fire investigators to get on scene a week after the incident. A cause of that fire has not yet been determined.
