A trio of fires kept New West firefighters on the move on Thursday morning.
New Westminster Fire and Rescue Services was called to Front Street on the morning of July 4, where an electrical pole was on fire. Some comments on social media had suggested wires had been cut, but that does not appear to be the case.
“Although the investigation for this is not yet completed, it does not appear to have been an electrical fire and no wires were cut,” said Deputy Chief Brad Davie. “The investigation into this fire was not able to be completed because the crew was required to attend the fire at the First Presbyterian Church.”
Once the fire at Front Street was extinguished and there was no risk to the public, firefighters attending that call left the scene and headed to the other fire.
First Presbyterian Church, located at the corner of Seventh Street and Fourth Avenue, was the location of the second fire attended by New West fire crews on July 4.
“There were flames seen on the exterior of the structure on the Fourth Avenue side upon arrival,” Davie said. “Crews extinguished this fire quickly.”
According to Davie, while checking for fire extension, firefighters realized the fire did extend into the wall near the origin of the fire.
“Crews opened up the wall and extinguished the fire,” he said. “There is some damage to the exterior wall on the Fourth Avenue side.”
No one was in the church at the time of the fire, and no one was injured, Davie said.
The cause of this fire is still under investigation.
Firefighters were still at the church fire, when the fire department was called to another fire in New Westminster
“While crews were fighting the fire at the church, crews were called to another confirmed fire at Kruger,” Davie said. “Employees at Kruger were using fire hoses to extinguish the fire as the fire department arrived on scene.”
Davie said Kruger operations were soon restored to full service.
