RCMP investigating suspicious blaze at vacant Kamloops restaurant

KAMLOOPS – The investigation into the suspicious fire at a vacant restaurant in Kamloops last night is in the hands of the RCMP.

Kamloops firefighters were called to the spectacular fire at the former Brass Kettle restaurant in the Aberdeen area at around 5:30 p.m. yesterday, Jan. 5. Crews arrived to find the building fully engulfed in flames.

Platoon Capt. David Ferguson says the empty building at Hugh Allan Drive and Pacific Way wasn’t hooked up to electricity or natural gas.

“It’s definitely suspicious because there was nothing in the building that would start on fire on it’s own,” Ferguson says.

He says the RCMP are investigating, and if it turns out the cause isn’t suspicious, the probe will be handed back to the Kamloops Fire Rescue investigators.

Ferguson says they were called to a small fire at the restaurant once before about a year ago.

“It caught fire, but by the time anyone noticed it had put itself out,” he says, adding they were responding to a report about the smell of smoke.

Ferguson doesn’t know if anyone had been living or keeping warm in the building at the time of the fire but says “there have been people in there before and it was boarded up in an effort to keep them out.”

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