A popular waterfront gelato shop was destroyed in White Rock Tuesday morning when a large fire broke out in a West Beach residential/business complex.
Tall flames ripped through the building at 14901 Marine Dr., home to Gelateria Italia & Coffee Shop, displacing dozens of residents of adjacent apartment buildings for several hours just after 7 a.m. Tuesday.
By 9 a.m., the fire was nearly contained.
Residents of the apartment complex on either side of the gutted building were allowed back into their homes Tuesday afternoon, according to White Rock fire Chief Phil Lemire, who said those units sustained only heat damage to their fire walls in the blaze.
However, the gelato shop, the vacant business directly above it and the ground-floor apartment at the rear of the building – which had an occupant who was not home at the time of the fire – all sustained major damage.
Late Tuesday, excavation equipment was brought in to demolish what was left of the fire-ravaged building. Dozens of bystanders looked on in dismay as the gelateria was destroyed.
The Marine Drive structure, built in the early 1920s, was one of few historic buildings left on White Rock’s waterfront. It was once home to the Masonic Lodge, then the popular Surf dance hall in the 1950s, later housing a grocery store, pizzeria and most recently the gelato shop.
On Wednesday morning, all that was left behind was a pile of rubble; the block of Marine Drive between Elm Street and Vidal Street remained closed to traffic as crews continued to clean up from the blaze.
Alarm bells began to ring around 7 a.m. Tuesday, according to resident Christy Fox, who was evacuated from her second-floor apartment in the 14900-block of Marine Drive.
“We started smelling smoke last night and didn’t know what it was,” Fox told Peace Arch News, noting she was scouring the Internet for any news of a nearby fire around 11 p.m. “It just kept getting stronger and stronger.”
By the time Fox and her two small dogs had fled her building, the building next door was engulfed in flames.
Dozens of onlookers took to the promenade Tuesday morning to catch a glimpse of the action, while several evacuated residents and their pets looked on. The nearby Boathouse Restaurant was opened for those who had been displaced to keep warm.
There were no injurie
s, according to Lemire, and the investigation is still in the early stages. Lemire confirmed that new tenants were preparing to move in to the vacant second-floor business space, and some renovation work had recently been taking place.
More than 4,000 homes and businesses in the Marine Drive area lost power just after 8 a.m. as a result of the blaze. Power to the majority of those hydro customers was restored shortly after; the remainder of homes and businesses affected were without power until 11:30 a.m., according to BC Hydro.
According to those who witnessed Tuesday’s fire, there was much concern about how quickly flames were spreading once fire crews arrived on the scene.
Kate Pelzer, whose mother lives behind the destroyed complex, lauded the fire department for their quick work despite a frightening scene.
“It was getting really close to the condos that are right behind there – (my mom) wasn’t worried about her house as much as the condos... She knows people who live there,” Pelzer said. “My mom said they did a great job containing. She said it was pretty scary at one point because the flames were so high and it was growing really quickly, but she said they did a great job.”
– with files from Sarah Massah
(YouTube photo by Kelly Breaks; Ed Holden fire photo; Melissa Smalley aftermath photo)
#Fire in #whiterock on the strip, flames getting high.. @CTVVancouver @VancityBuzz @TheNowNewspaper @PeaceArchNews pic.twitter.com/YT5gMOwxgB
— Kate Pelzer (@KatePelzer) March 10, 2015