A family has been left homeless after a fire in downtown Port Coquitlam today (Wednesday) — a burger family.
Six people were in the A&W restaurant on Shaughnessy Street at about 11:30 when it started to fill with smoke.
Marlaina Ward, who’s worked at the restaurant for two years, said the three staff members on duty were at first confused. “We thought maybe someone had left their cell phone on the grill,” she said as she watched firefighters roll up their hoses and set up fans just before noon.
But the smoke seemed heaviest at the front of the burger restaurant, near the front door. That’s when someone noticed a small fire in the ceiling next to the Exit sign.
As a customer tried to extinguish the flames with a fire extinguisher, another employee called 911.
PoCo fire chief Nick Delmonico said the restaurant was “fully charged” with dense, black smoke when his crews arrived five minutes later. He said while it took them a while to find the fire’s source, they were able to put the fire out in short order.
Cleaning up and reopening the restaurant will take a lot longer. Most of the ceiling had to be torn down to access the fire, and the windows in the front and side doors were smashed out.
Ward figures she’ll be out of work for awhile. “It doesn’t look too promising,” she said.
Delmonico said it was too soon to determine the cause of the fire. Nobody was injured.
Shaugnessy Street was closed to traffic as firefighters mopped up.
