There are new questions about what happened just moments before a massive fire destroyed a long-term care home under construction on Penticton, B.C.’s Green Avenue last week.
While the cause is being investigated, Global News has obtained photos of a person on the construction site just minutes before flames erupted and the fire department was called.
One photo shows the person approaching the frame of a window while another picture appears to show the person jumping out of it.
Sources tell Global News that RCMP were called to the site for a possible trespassing complaint with the responding officer noticing flames soon after arriving.
RCMP have not yet confirmed the trespassing call.
According to the City of Kelowna, RCMP have now taken over the investigation.
“The fire department is working in collaboration with the RCMP, but the RCMP is now in charge of the investigation from here on out,” said Kristen Dixon, general manager of infrastructure and deputy city manager for the City of Penticton.
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Late Wednesday, the city rescinded its local state of emergency and evacuation order for 10 properties.
“I came down right away,” said Brenda van Ingen, one of the evacuees. “So relieved.”
The fire destroyed one home, while several others sustained some fire and smoke damage.
It also scorched part of a crane on the site, potentially compromising its structural integrity, which prompted a handful of homes in its vicinity to be evacuated.
“It was difficult to get the inspection completed for the crane but the engineer was able to do that inspection and complete it yesterday and confirmed that it is stable, to allow the area to be deemed safe to return,” Dixon said.
Van Ingen’s home is one of the properties deemed to be at risk if the crane fell.
She’s feeling grateful not only to have returned home but to one that’s still standing.
“Thank goodness. It could have been so much worse,” van Ingen said.
The fire department said flying embers caused six additional fires in the neighbourhood, one of them in the cedar hedge between her house and the neighbouring property.
“Apparently it was in full flame and obviously the firemen got in here, otherwise Norm’s house would have been gone, my shed and it would have probably been my house too,” she said.
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