– Firefighters save nearby buildings –

(OSOYOOS TIMES — August 16, 2006) –

By Lawrence McMahenrnOsoyoos Times

The B.C. Fire Commissioner's Office is looking at arson as the possible cause of what RCMP call a suspicious fire that levelled the Osoyoos Bottle Depot in the early morning hours of last Thursday.
No one was injured in the fire, but one of the Depot owner's dogs died in the blaze.
Provincial arson investigator Ray Aitken, of Chilliwack, visited the burned-out scene Friday and said he would spend a couple of days studying all aspects of the fire. He couldn't say when his final report would be issued.
RCMP officers patrolling along Main Street in Osoyoos early Thursday morning noticed smoke rising from the Bottle Depot at 8305 72nd Avenue and called the Fire Department and the FortisBC electrical utility.
Fire Chief Rick Jones says the call came in at 2:29 a.m. and the full department responded immediately to the fire “ with 25 firefighters and four trucks.
The building was fully in flames and Jones says all his crew could do was work to prevent the fire from spreading to adjacent buildings. We were able to save the house next door, he said.
Police evacuated nearby homes and Fortis workers arrived quickly to take down burnt overhead power lines and cut power to the Bottle Depot so it was safe for firefighters to enter.
Jones says the fire crew remained on-site mopping up until about 8 a.m. Thursday. The site was secured with police tape and firefighters did an initial walk-through Thursday morning looking closely at the remnants of the fire.
Bottle Depot owner Sandra Palmateer told the Times on Thursday afternoon that the building was insured. She has operated the recycling business in Osoyoos for 15 years, and since 2000 at the current location.
She said the accumulated bottles and other recycle material is shipped out of the Depot weekly, and she lost nearly a full week's worth of material in the fire. The value was up to $3,700 per day of her payout for the material.
On Thursday afternoon Palmateer was still shaken by the event and quietly sobbed over the loss of one of her family's dogs in the fire. Bart, 10 months old, had just been put in the Depot on Wednesday to spend the night. Palmateer says she lost all her business paperwork and records as well as a number of personal belongings stored in the Depot building, including a lot of precious family photos.
I just feel sad for Bart, she said in a breaking voice. He would have been a year old in October.rnPalmateer's recycling business reopened using makeshift tables and bins in a yard next to the burned-out Bottle Depot on Sunday. She said Thursday she didn't know what her plans would be in terms of rebuilding on the same lot or relocating to another site.
The nearest building to the Depot was a house owned and used by chiropractor Dr. Carl Weber for his practice. Weber notes that 70 per cent of the firefighters are my patients, so he said jokingly that he feels they worked hard to save his building.
There was some damage. The heat of the fire blew in the windows and melted anything plastic, as well as the siding on the garage, Weber says. There was also damage from the water sprayed into the house.
I was really lucky to have the good stucco exterior, and I really want to thank Rick Jones and his crew for their excellent work, Weber says. He adds that he had repair work underway first thing Thursday morning and his chiropractic business was open again by 1:15 that afternoon.