An abandoned Surrey home was destroyed in a fire Wednesday night. It happened in the 12400-block of 104th Avenue around 10:45 p.m.
“We would consider it an offensive fire,” Acting Battalion Chief Dave Wyatt told the Now-Leader early Thursday morning.
“It was fully involved on arrival, and we weren’t going to put firefighters in harm’s way. It was very tricky to put it out. The house was totally destroyed.”
Wyatt said the fire department isn’t sure what started the fire, but noted the RCMP said they’d located some homeless people inside the building earlier in the day. “
But to say what started it? Too hard to determine at this point,” said Wyatt.
Surrey RCMP told the Now-Leader that there had been 23 calls for service to the property so far in 2018, mainly related to “landlord, tenancy and homeless issues at the property.” RCMP also confirmed they attended the home Wednesday, before the fire started.
A Black Press freelancer at the scene counted 20 firefighters battling the blaze, and Wyatt said “initially, there were more than that.”
“I believe the crews are going to head back there today, there may be some small hot spots, stuff collapsed, and it’s very hard to put out. But we need to make sure it’s extinguished,” Wyatt added.
The freelancer noted that fire crews “had to attack the fire from the outside due to the inherit dangers associated with vacant buildings” but were “able to contain the fire to the home and prevent it from spreading to the surrounding green belt.”
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