A large fire has torn through a vacant building in Surrey for the third time since 2013.
The blaze broke out at around 9 p.m. on Saturday at a building on the 8300 block of Scott Road.
“It was very scary and we could see all the flames coming towards our house too,” Ilham Ali, who lives near the building, told CTV Vancouver.
Ali said he and his daughter evacuated their own home and called 911.
This isn’t the first time the building has caught fire.
A huge blaze on Boxing Day of 2013 forced out nearly a dozen people living there at the time. In 2016, another fire ripped through the building.
Fire officials said this time, little could be done to save what was left.
“Nobody went inside or into the collapse zones,” said Kevin Beenham of the Surrey Fire Service. “The building was unsafe due to previous fires, so…we didn’t put anybody inside.”
No one was injured during the fire. Mounties are investigating how this latest blaze started.
Neighbours told CTV Vancouver they had recently been informed of plans to redevelop the building.
“Somebody owns it,” said neighbor Melinda Garand. “(The owner) is trying to get a four-storey building in there.”
Vancouver firefighters said they are seeing a what they say is a concerning number of fires in vacant buildings.
Beenham said Surrey’s fire department is working to solve the problem.
“We have patrols and we set up…and our fire crews in the area go and check to ensure that house are boarded up securely,” he said.
The building is a complete loss and will be torn down.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Breanna Karstens-Smith
