Image Credit: Contributed / Ryan Armand

By James Peters

Wendy's Fire

Investigators believe Wendy’s fire started near the roof

Apr 13, 2020 | 4:17 PM

KAMLOOPS — Investigators looking into a fire that gutted a North Shore fast food restaurant early Friday morning (Apr. 10) believe the blaze started near the roof.

The fire, which was first noticed at around 1:45 a.m. Friday, tore through the Wendy’s location at Tranquille Road and Eighth Street before Kamloops Fire Rescue (KFR) personnel were able to put it out.

In the days since, KFR Chief Fire Prevention Officer Dean Olstad has been investigating, along with the restaurant’s insurance firm.

“[The cause is] still undetermined, but it probably started up higher up in the structure — so something on the roof or maybe just below the roof,” Olstad told CFJC Today.

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Olstad says the building sustained severe fire damage and the entire roof has collapsed into the inside of the restaurant.

“The place was closed up roughly around midnight and at that point, [none of] the employees had any sense of anything at all,” he said. “So between midnight and roughly quarter-to-two, something goes sideways in that building.”

Olstad says he will continue working with the private insurance firm to try to find a cause.