The Victoria Police Department is investigating an early morning fire on Wharf Street that is being called suspicious.
Witness video of the fire at 1234 Wharf St. shows emergency crews on scene around midnight Thursday, Feb. 2.
Const. Terri Healy with Victoria Police says no further information about the investigation can be released at this time.
“I can confirm there was a suspicious fire early this morning near 1234 Wharf St. It is still in the early stages of investigation and I cannot provide further details at this time,” Healy said in an email.
Victoria Fire Department says it was called around 11:50 p.m. for a vehicle fire.
A large passenger van was fully engulfed and it had spread to a second passenger van.
Some of the windows at Lido, a nearby restaurant, shattered from the heat and there was smoke damage. There is no estimate yet of the damages.
In an Instagram post, Victoria Fire says it was contacted by a nearby resident who caught the firefighters dousing the flames on video.
View this post on Instagram
“Crews did a great job of utilizing their familiarity of the area to enable a very quick attack on the fire,” Capt. Brent Hoppenr said in the Instagram post. “They saved the restaurant who’s windows had started blowing out from the heat of the flames accompanied with the tires which were exploding as we arrived. Had the restaurant caught fire, the impact to the hotel and its guests would have been large and thankfully that was avoided.”
The crews on scene focused on protecting the restaurant and hotel from the fire spreading to the building, while others worked on extinguishing the two vans that were burning, the post says.
The firefighters had to work to manage the tires on the vans exploding, and burning fuel pouring out of the diesel tank.
-With files from CHEK’s Tess van Straaten
CHEK News
