Firefighters battled a fire on Main Street on the morning of May 1 that destroyed two businesses and damaged several others. Photo by Paul Everest - Click on the picture for a larger image

OSOYOOS TIMES-May 4, 2011

By Paul Everest - Osoyoos Times

The Osoyoos Times has confirmed that an 18-year-old Osoyoos man arrested in connection to a fire that destroyed two Main Street businesses on May 1 had ties to one of the devastated businesses.
Police announced on the evening of May 2 that they had arrested a man late the night before in Osoyoos in connection to the fire.
The fire is being treated as suspicious in nature at this time, police added.
The Times has learned that the suspect in police custody is Phoenix Lonsdale, a man who the owner of the Osoyoos Christian Ministry thrift store, which was destroyed in the blaze, said had begun playing a piano in the store on a volunteer basis the week before the fire broke out.
Lonsdale’s foster mother confirmed to the Times on May 3 that her foster son had been arrested.
He is charged with committing arson and appeared in court on May 3 and is scheduled to return to court on May 9.
The fire broke out before 9 a.m. on May 1and gutted the Osoyoos Christian Ministry church and thrift shop and the Dollar Smart Discount.
No one was injured.
Both businesses were housed in one building in the 8500 block of Main Street belonging to Jack Sandhu.
The neighbouring CIBC bank, Gonzalez Denture Clinic and Lakeside Travel were damaged by the fire and firefighting activities.

Blaze began in basement

Chief Rick Jones of the Osoyoos Volunteer Fire Department said his department received a call of a fire at the church and thrift store at 8:48 a.m. and by shortly after 9 a.m. flames were coming from the building’s roof and a column of thick black smoke was rising hundred of metres into the sky.
Jones said it is believed that the fire started in the basement of the thrift store and reached ground level via a stairwell before entering the building’s roof.
From there, he said, it spread easily into the neighbouring Dollar Smart Discount.
The thrift store was filled with a high number of burnable items, Jones added, making the blaze a tough one to fight.
He also said the fire was especially worrisome to his department since much of Main Street was at risk.
Because the fire was already spreading through the dollar and thrift stores, the department worked hard to save adjacent buildings.
Firefighters positioned themselves on top of the neighbouring CIBC to keep the blaze from spreading to the bank and also entered the bank through its back doors to assess what impact the fire was having on the bank’s structure, Jones said.
More than 20 Osoyoos firefighters battled the fire until just before 5 p.m. with help from five members of the Oliver Volunteer Fire Department, Jones said, adding that Oliver also sent a fire truck to Osoyoos to stand by should another fire break out in town while crews were tied up on Main Street.
An excavator from Knights Heavy Haul and Lowbed Service Inc. was brought in during the early afternoon to pull down the damaged structure of the building to keep the fire from spreading throughout the block and to allow firefighters to put out spot fires, Jones added.
Firefighters were also called back to the scene at 4:30 a.m. on May 2 when security personnel guarding the site noticed smoke coming from the rubble, he said.
Jones said investigators from his department, the RCMP, insurance companies and the B.C. Office of the Fire Commissioner were going to meet at the site of the fire on May 4 to look through the charred remains more thoroughly in the hopes of determining the cause of the blaze.
Iris DeVries, a pastor at the Osoyoos Christian Ministry and owner of the ministry’s church and thrift store, said the contents of the church and store were not insured and nearly $20,000 worth of goods were lost in the fire, including an antique piano valued at $12,000.
She said a service was scheduled to take place at the church at 10 a.m. the morning of the fire, but no one had been in the building since 10 p.m. the night before.
DeVries said the ministry had rented the space in the destroyed building for three years and added that she hopes to reopen the church at another location soon.
As for the announcement of the arrest of a person with a connection to the ministry, DeVries said she was shocked.
She said Lonsdale, who has also performed the national anthem at Osoyoos Coyotes hockey games and attends Osoyoos Secondary School, approached the ministry about a week before the fire and asked if he could play the piano to entertain customers and gain exposure for his musical talents.
Lonsdale had played the piano in the thrift store almost every day leading up to the fire, DeVries said, adding that he was living with foster parents in town and had come from Seattle.
She said neither she, nor her husband, had any quarrels with the suspect.

Suspect allegedly has troubled past

On April 30, the Times received an email from a woman who identified herself as Lonsdale’s cousin.
She asked the Times to consider writing a story on Lonsdale to inform the community of his talent and the struggles he has had to overcome in his life.
In the email, the woman said Lonsdale “was born a child of rape and drug abuse.”
“He has been in and out of foster care since the age of 18 months,” the woman wrote. “He’s spent time in rehab and juvenile detention for mistakes he has made.”
The woman also mentioned that Lonsdale was “volunteering his time at a local thrift shop here in Osoyoos and the establishment is very close to shutting down.”
According to Lonsdale’s Facebook page, he is a fan of country music and crime shows such as CSI and Law and Order.

Other businesses affected

Darlene Dorion, who owns the Dollar Smart Discount with her husband, Lionel, said she arrived at the scene of the fire as the building’s roof collapsed and watched in shock as the business she has owned for five years, as well as a number of personal items inside, went up in flames.
The fire is devastating for her family, she said, especially since her husband is dying of cancer.
Dorion added that she is unsure if they will rebuild.
Maria Gonzalez, owner of Gonzalez Denture Clinic which is located next to Dollar Smart Discount, said her building sustained roof damage, water damage to the ceiling and carpets and the smell of smoke is lingering.
She said she hopes her insurance will cover the roughly $30,000 in damage the fire caused to her business and she’s unsure when it will reopen.
Gonzalez added, however, that Dr. Alan Singleton offered her space at his Osoyoos Dental Centre for her to continue working.
Jones reported that the CIBC suffered minimal water damage, but the bank did sustain some damage from broken glass and fire crews damaged the building’s back door.
Security crews from Penticton were brought in on May 1 and 2 to guard the bank since its front doors were left open to air the building out and the branch reopened on May 3.
Several other businesses were affected since the fire damaged phone and power lines.
A Telus spokesman said more than 100 of the telecommunication company’s customers lost service when three of the utility’s cables were destroyed in the fire.
Telus crews were able to access the site of the fire on the morning of May 2, however, and phone and Internet service was restored by 7 p.m. that night.
At least one service at the nearby St. Anne’s Catholic Church was cancelled due to thick smoke coming from the fire.
Jack Sandhu, the owner of the destroyed 641-square-metre building, said he bought the building five years ago for $445,000 and the building is insured. He added that he plans to rebuild.
Rudy Miller, who owned the building for more than 43 years, said the building was built in 1942.
He said he sold it to Sandhu in 2007.
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