A serious fire that tore through a Port Coquitlam building and ignited power lines shut down part of the city’s main drag Friday night as firefighters worked to battle the blaze.
Port Coquitlam Fire and Rescue arrived on the scene at around 7 p.m. as the fire began to move through at commercial building on the 2600 block of Shaughnessy Street at Elgin Avenue.
The first alarm fire prompted firefighters to marshal three units and a third alarm added another three. At one point, 24 fire fighters were on scene tackling the fire with hoses and ladders.
“There was no one inside so crews went on the defensive,” said acting Dept. Chief Mike Patrick.
The two-storey commercial structure, which houses an insurance company had been renovated several times, which meant a lot of void spaces for the fire to move through the building.
“Was actually quit difficult to fight.” said Patrick.
At one point the fire torched an adjacent power line but within a few hours the firefighters had the blaze under control and with a gap between it and the neighbouring businesses — a hair salon — no other buildings were affected.
By about 12:30 p.m. the fire had been extinguished and Shaughnessy Street reopened to the public.
And while the cause of the fire is still under investigation, Patrick said the location and severity of the fire means the outcome could have been gone a lot worse.
“If the crews didn’t knock it down when they did, it could have caused a lot more damage to the downtown core,” said Patrick.
