New Westminster police are seeking video footage to help find the cause of the massive fire that gutted a building on Columbia Street on Victoria Day.
About 3:15 a.m. on Monday, May 24, New Westminster Fire and Rescue Service responded to an alarm monitoring company’s call about a fire in the building at Columbia and Church streets. The building, home to MagnetiQ Club Lounge, Happy Buddha Tattoo, Pho Pho You and the Heritage Grill, was destroyed.
“Thankfully, no one sustained injuries as a result of the fire,” said a press release from the New Westminster Police Department that was issued late Tuesday afternoon. “The fire impacted traffic and electricity service in the area while the fire department worked to extinguish the blaze.”
According to police, the cause of the fire is unknown, but the NWPD’s major crime unit has been called in to assist fire investigators in determining a cause.
Police are asking anyone with information about the fire to contact major crime unit investigators at 604-525-5411. Investigators are also interested in obtaining CCTV footage and dash-cam footage that may have been taken from the 0 to the 1000 block of Columbia Street on Monday, May 24 between 2:30 and 6 a.m.
On Tuesday afternoon, Fire Chief Tim Armstrong told the Record it’s too early to know whether the fire is suspicious. He said comments posited on social media that the fire started in a dumpster or that the nightclub was under investigation aren’t accurate.
“We are just right now starting our investigation into that,” he said of the cause. “It’s to be determined.”
Armstrong said video surveillance taken in the area and statements from firefighters who fought the fire would be part of the investigation.
“We are thinking it probably initiated in a common hallway, but we are still looking into that,” he told the Record. “There was a hall area that serviced all the units in there, including the nightclub.”
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