A suspicious fire at Port Alberni’s old Somass mill site is not expected to slow down its planned redevelopment into a mixed-use neighbourhood.
The Port Alberni Fire Department, RCMP and the Office of the Fire Commissioner are consulting about entering the destroyed building to conduct an investigation into the origin and cause of the fire, Fire Chief Mike Owens said Monday.
The city woke up to a spectacular blaze Sunday when flames at the unused industrial building shot more than 15 metres high and plumes of grey smoke climbed into the sky.
No one was hurt.
This is the second major suspicious fire at the property since October.
Port Alberni Deputy Fire Chief Travis Cross said firefighters responded shortly after 8:30 a.m. to reports of a fire at Building No. 5 at the Somass site, which no longer has an active mill.
When they arrived, the structure was “fully involved” in flames and firefighters could not approach safely, he said.
A decision was made to focus efforts on preventing the fire from spreading to other buildings and nearby heavy equipment until the fire was “burned through” and it was possible to get water inside the building, Cross said.
Firefighters from the Beaver Creek, Cherry Creek and Sproat Lake departments assisted.
The fire was put out around noon, and crews remained on site to deal with hot spots and removal of some of the collapsed material.
About half the building collapsed from the fire, he said. “Everything that was combustible inside is burnt.”
Owens highlighted the rapid response after the first report came in at 8:37 a.m. on Sunday, saying firefighters were en route at 8:38 a.m. and arrived at 8:40 a.m. Mutual aid fire departments were quickly on site, as well.
He said firefighters are in a defensive mode when working on such a fire. They have to be mindful that the collapse zone can be much larger than a building’s footprint.
There was an “immense amount of fire” and a lot of heat was being thrown off, he said.
Cross said that some of the heavy timber supports are still intact, but it’s not safe for people to work underneath them. “The whole building will eventually have to come down.”
Although the compound is surrounded by fencing, the fire department has seen signs of unauthorized people on the site as well as compromised fencing.
The building that was heavily damaged on Sunday — nicknamed the “patina building” for its rust-covered steel cladding — had been eyed as a structure that could be repurposed as part of a future redevelopment.
In 2021, the City of Port Alberni purchased the 43-acre Somass division mill site and nearby properties for $5.3 million.
In recent months, multiple structures that were once part of the sawmill operation have been demolished in anticipation of a redevelopment that would feature a mix of parks, retail, offices and housing.
The Somass sawmill, established in 1935, has not operated since 2017 after it was shut down by Western Forest Products over a lack of log supply and softwood lumber disputes between Canada and the United States.
Port Alberni Coun. Cindy Solda said the fire swept through history, a place that held many memories for local residents. “Many people spent most of their lives there working in that area in that particular building.”
The redevelopment plan would have given that building a new purpose, joining other buildings in the city that have been reused. Its potential use had not been nailed down yet.
“To repurpose a building like that would have been great,” Solda said. “It’s disappointing.”
The blaze also means the loss of valuable lumber inside, she said. “With the fire there’s a lot of really expensive timber that went down. I’m talking about the beams and stuff like that.”
Scott Smith, Port Alberni’s deputy chief administrative officer, said the loss of the latest building will not be an impediment to future development, other than it is no longer possible to use it.
The vast majority of the site has been cleared for potential redevelopment, he said.
Remediation is well underway. The city still has to submit a formal application to the B.C. Ministry of Environment for a certificate of compliance. It will also continue work with development partner Mathews West to make final decisions about land-use planning.
Plans are “moving along really well,” Smith said.
