The investigation has concluded into the fire that destroyed the Bargain Shop Thursday morning.
According to a news release issued Tuesday by North Battleford Fire Department, the cause is listed as undetermined.
According to North Battleford Fire the blaze at the Bargain Shop, located at the corner of 101st Street and 12th Avenue, originated in the middle of the store around the ceiling area, and there was a high burn pattern.
The news release states the probable cause of the fire was electrical. The store manager was having issues with the lights, and in particular the light fixture in the centre of the store. They had replaced the ballast but that failed to solve the problem. A new fixture was purchased and an electrician was going to come in and change it.
But then the blaze broke out in the early morning hours of Thursday morning, destroying the structure. The investigation concluded that while the possible cause is electrical, there wasn’t enough physical evidence to support this, so it is listed as undetermined.
Involved in the investigation was an RCMP fire scene investigator, an investigator from the Office of the Fire Commissioner and Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Steinborn of North Battleford Fire Department.
The blaze at the Bargain Shop was certainly the most spectacular major fire in North Battleford since the Jesus is Alive building fire in March of 2012.
It prompted a full response from North Battleford Fire with two pumper trucks, one aerial truck, one command truck, a utility unit and 13 firefighters. Battleford Fire Department also supplied two pumper trucks, one command truck and 12 firefighters and SaskEnergy and SaskPower also responded. Crews were on the scene for about 10 hours following the initial call at 4:28 a.m.
Fortunately, there were no injuries reported.
While the Bargain Shop building was a total loss, fire crews were successful in protecting the Fabricland building and another adjoining vacant building. Employees at Fabricland said their structure did not suffer major damage, but did say there was some smoke and water damage to the basement.
Some fogging was done this week inside the Fabricland building to remove some of the smoke odour there. That caused some excitement as fire alarms were activated Monday afternoon at that location.
That issue was soon resolved. Firefighters had responded and were on scene for about a half hour.
The Bargain Shop location remained a pile of rubble as of Tuesday, with the entire location fenced off from the sidewalk.
