Police and fire officials are both involved in an investigation into what caused a destructive weekend blaze at a Vernon, B.C., gymnastics facility.
An RCMP spokesperson said Monday it is too early to comment on whether or not criminality was involved.
“The cause of the fire is yet to be determined and given the size of the fire, and extent of the resulting damage, we are anticipating the investigation will take some time,” said Vernon RCMP spokesperson Const. Chris Terleski, in an emailed statement.
“It is too early to say whether criminality is, or is not suspected.”
North Valley Gymnastics in Vernon is reeling following a destructive fire over the weekend.
“The impact of this fire is significant, not only for the business itself but for our entire community,” Terleski said.
“After reaching a point where our children are finally able to get back to enjoying the activities they love, to lose a facility such as this that brings joy to so many people in our community is incredibly devastating. Our hearts go out to the owners, staff, coaches, and hundreds of children and families who are affected by this loss.”
The fire is especially painful for the North Valley Gymnastics Society, which owned and operated the facility, because of the amount of effort that went into fundraising to buy and renovate the building.
“It goes back 25 years this club has been wanting a facility of their own and lots of hard work through all past members and board members managed to save enough to buy this property,” said society president Paul Williamson.
The society only got to realize that dream a few years ago when it opened the doors of their now-burnt building in June 2018.
After the complete destruction of their building, this weekend, the club is starting over with only a few salvaged files and some new equipment that was spared because it has yet to be delivered.
“It’s just a big shock for everyone in the whole community,” Williamson said.
Williamson said the loss of the building has been devastating for the kids who train there.
The facility taught hundreds of children each week.
The gymnastics club has insurance on the building but it won’t cover all the society’s costs.
The nonprofit is now working on finding a temporary space and eventually rebuilding.
Fire crews were called to the building that houses the gymnastics club early Sunday morning.
When they arrived in the 4700-block of 31st Street, the unoccupied building was close to collapse.
“As they opened up the first overhead door there was fire throughout the entire building. Very unsafe conditions and certainly not conditions that we can put people into,” said fire chief David Lind.
“We needed to use a defensive strategy for this fire so basically applying water from the outside.”
Asked about the virtually complete destruction of the building, the fire chief said the blaze appears to have burnt largely undetected until it had grown in size and magnitude leaving nothing left to salvage.