The Terrace Fire Department crew was notified about a structure fire at 4:29 am. The Thornhil Fire Department joined to help relieve the fire.
Joel Brousson, the fire chief of Terrace said “We had crews immediately respond from the Terrace Fire Hall, as well as our automatic aid agreement, which brings in Thornhill Fire Department to support us. Crews found a well working fire”.
The crew started with offensive fire removal, where they were taking the things that were on fire out of the building but the fire had spread into the attic space and broken the top and then they chose to turn to a defensive method where they directly attacked the fire.
The top of the structure had collapsed so the building had to be torn down to prevent the building from breaking and the fire from spreading.
The Fire Station is still conducting the investigation.
The proprietor, Theresa Moffat, communicated her sadness. “I’ve been bowling in this bowling alley for 44 years. Not as long as some of our bowlers. We have one lady that’s been in here for over 55 years, 60 years.”
Her alarm company called her at 4:40 in the morning saying that a smoke detector started ringing followed by movement detected. She asked the Smoke Detector Company to call the RCMP but by the time RCMP got to the location, the building was completely in flames.
Theresa added, “We’re going to have a lot of unhappy people. I had a birthday party booked for 4:00 this afternoon, so some child is going to be very upset that they’re not going to get their bowling party. I had a lot of school groups that we book for the end of May and throughout June, and unfortunately, there’s a lot of unhappy kids that aren’t going to be able to come by”.
There was an atmosphere of sadness and many of the folks present had tears that the bowling alley burned down. Residents also shared about their memories to the bowling alley. They also said that the residents of the city have one less thing to do.
The land is owned by the City of Terrace and was leased to the owner. Earlier the city had tried to convert the land to a parking lot.