Memorial Arena fire suspicious, no criminal intent: Kamloops RCMP

KAMLOOPS — Fire investigators and city staff assessed the damage at Memorial Arena on Monday (Feb. 14), the site of a fire that torched parts of a staircase in the early morning hours on Sunday (Feb. 13).

“The guys rolled up on scene and saw pretty heavy smoke and flame on the east side of the structure,” said Kamloops Fire Rescue assistant captain Scott Johnson. “[They] immediately pulled lines and attacked the fire.”

Kamloops Fire Rescue and RCMP were called to the arena around 1:30 a.m. Sunday.

The fire is being treated as suspicious but not criminal.

“We’re still investigating what the cause of it, what the exact cause was, but at this time it doesn’t appear that it was criminal in nature,” said Cst. Crystal Evelyn.

Meanwhile, CMHA Kamloops says there were 19 clients, three staff and a security guard inside the building at the time of the fire. CMHA says the fire accelerated the plans to move people up to Merit Place at the former Greyhound bus depot on Notre Dame Drive.

KFR has been cautious over the messaging of the fire and doesn’t believe it was caused by clients staying at Memorial.

It’s part of a series of fires that have popped up around Kamloops. There were two fires recently at empty homes downtown owned by the Kelson Group and another on the North Shore on the former Red Sea Auto lot.

“Nobody wants to be pointing fingers at anybody else for the issues. It’s a hot topic in the city right now,” noted Johnson. “We’re all just trying to navigate our way through it. There

At this time, fire and police have yet to link the fires to one another.

“There’s no preliminary indication to connect any of the fires, so police are investigating this [Memorial Arena] fire and we’ll continue to review the other fires as part of the ongoing investigation,” said Evelyn.