UPDATE: Kelowna apartment complex under construction destroyed by fire

An early morning fire today gutted an apartment complex that was under construction near Glenmore and Union Roads in Kelowna.

The fire broke out before 6 a.m. today, April 6, and was knocked down by about 6:38 a.m., neighbour Lea Ircandia told iNFOnews.ca.

The complex was called Wydham Heights and had two floors roughed in with the third floor walls having arrived yesterday, the owner of the complex said. He only gave his name as Dave and did not want to talk any further about the blaze.

“It was about six o’clock when I looked out the window and the flames were going so high,” Mildred Cook said. “You can see, my siding is starting to (buckle) from heat. When I looked out the window, it was so hot, the glass was so hot I could not touch it.”

Cook lives across the street from the complex, which is next to Wyndham Park.

Ircandia, who lives in the nearby Wyndham Terrace complex told neighbours that she turned off her furnace before going out so it didn’t suck smoke into her house.

An RCMP news release said some of the residents near the fire had been evacuated.

Fire crews were still pouring water onto the smouldering rubble as of 8 a.m.

By noon, the RCMP were still not able to examine the site.

"We’re still waiting for the whole scene to cool down so we can get our fire investigators in to have a look at it," RCMP Cpl. Jocelyn Noseworthy told iNFOnews.ca. "We are still holding the scene waiting for a chance to collect evidence

Police were also waiting to see what steps need to be taken to secure a construction crane at the site that Noseworthy estimated to be about 160 feet tall.

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 – This story was updated April 6, 2021 at 12:35 p.m. to include more information from the RCMP.

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