Suspicious fire spreads to vehicles and structure

The wind caused a trailer fire to spread to a nearby structure in West Kelowna.

The initial call for West Kelowna Fire Rescue was to respond to a wildfire in the area of Talon Drive and Hawkes Blvd. in a field behind WalMart this afternoon.

“Crews were updated enroute by dispatch that the fire was coming from a trailer instead of the surrounding field,” said Chad Gartrell, assistant fire chief.

Gartrell said the the wind-driven fire started in a travel trailer and quickly spread to nearby vehicles, vegetation and a neighbouring structure on site.

“Due to the volume of materials on site and the legacy construction of the exposed structure, the fire was stubborn to extinguish. Crews worked hard to gain access in the concealed spaces of the roof space using chainsaws to cut through the ceiling to extinguish the fire,” the assistant chief added.

Gartrell said investigators have deemed the fire to be suspicious. The file has been turned over to RCMP for further investigation.