Power restored, roads reopened after massive Saanich fire

The power has been restored and single-lane traffic reopened on Saanich’s Quadra Street by the wreckage from a massive fire on a condo construction site.

“It still feels kind of dreamlike,” said neighbour Michael Rodgers after the overnight fire Tuesday. “Thank goodness no one was injured.”

Saanich police and fire departments are early in their investigations into what caused the fire during a wind storm.

“In terms of going through the rubble on-site, it’s going to be difficult to pinpoint exactly where it started,” said Saanich fire chief Michael Kaye. “At this point it’s undetermined. We’re not sure if it has to do with the wind or what’s going on.”

The chief says they’re still hopeful surveillance footage from the area will help provide clues.

One neighbour across the street says he had reported to 911 dispatch hours before the fire to report a tarp causing concern in the wind.

“We came back and there was actually a tarp hanging off the site of one of the trees… and it was wrapping around the telephone wires or the electrical wires,” said Jared Strong.

Saanich’s fire chief confirms a crew was sent to clear the tarp, which included a sweep of the area.

“That was cleared. They did a 360 of the site to see if there was any other loose objects or anything else that they thought was going to cause problems through the night,” said Kaye. “We feel that it’s absolutely unrelated.”

The scene was still highly active Thursday, two days from the fire. Firefighters remained in the area putting out hot spots. There was an excavator crew clearing debris. The District of Saanich also had a team on-site repairing streetside infrastructure that had been damaged.

The district and chief say BC Hydro staff had also worked through the night Wednesday to restore power to the affected area by Thursday morning.

“It was just kind of like camping for a couple of days,” said Rodgers about the disruption.

He said his home nearby didn’t experience any damage. The fire chief says assessments are still underway to put a dollar value on the total damage.

“We’re still piecing everything together. It’s quite a large site and it spread quite a field in terms of the embers and little spot fires that were around the area,” said Kaye.