Suspicious fire at vacant, notorious Vernon motel

VERNON – RCMP are investigating a suspicious fire at an infamous Vernon motel last night.

Vernon fire chief Keith Green says just after midnight, March 26, crews were called to the Green Valley Motel at the bottom of hospital hill at 2500 32 Street.

Green says the caretaker who is looking after the vacant motel noticed smoke coming from the third floor and could see fire in the window of one of the rooms.

“He entered the suite with a fire extinguisher and tried to knock it down,” Green says.

Fire crews arrived and finished putting out the fire, which was contained to the bathroom of the room.

“Good on the caretaker for having a fire extinguisher handy, that helped” Green says.

No one was hurt.

Because the fire was in a third floor room in an unoccupied motel, it was deemed suspicious and the investigation handed over to RCMP, Green says.

In September 2015, the long term tenants of the motel were evicted.

The motel, notorious for attracting criminal activity when it was occupied, is currently up for sale.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Howard Alexander at halexander@infonews.ca. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.