RCMP investigating suspicious Kelowna apartment fire

KELOWNA – A man was taken to hospital and the other residents of Sutherland Manor were evacuated from their homes Tuesday morning when fire broke out.

Platoon captain Eric Simpson says the first fire crew to arrive at the apartment building at 560 Sutherland Ave. saw smoke coming from the top of the door at one of the suites and sparks and flames coming from underneath.

“They advanced with a hose into the unit and extinguished the fire,” Simpson says in a media release. “In the process they found one man in the back bedroom.”

The man was taken to Kelowna General Hospital by ambulance.

A RCMP was doing a well-being check on a resident and the smoke was coming from his apartment, according to a Global Okanagan report. The man was apprehended under the Mental Health Act and taken to hospital.

Simpson says the cause of the fire is suspicious and under investigation by both the fire department and RCMP.

Even though the building’s fire alarm bells were ringing, some people evacuate and firefighters were forced to go door-to-door to make sure everyone was out.

“The Kelowna Fire Department would like to remind everyone that when you hear alarm bells in your complex please leave immediately, it could save your life,” Simpson says.

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