A fire that broke out in storage structures behind the Noodle Box restaurant near Victoria’s Chinatown Saturday night sent flames 30 feet in the air and threw one man off his feet.
The fire started at about 7:30 p.m. in a storage shed or sheds behind the restaurant at 624 Fisgard Street, Victoria Fire Battalion Chief Jeff Zigay said. No one was taken to hospital.
“Flames were 30 feet high and going pretty good when we got here,” Zigay said.
Bells rang in an apartment building behind the restaurant and people evacuated by themselves, Zigay said.
Ground-floor resident Darcy Merrick said he smelled something strange and got up. He saw smoke and followed it around the corner and saw flames. Merrick grabbed a fire extinguisher and pulled the pin but as he went to spray the canister there was an explosion from the structures.
“It threw me back six feet to the ground,” Merrick said. “I gave up and I just went to Noodle Box and shouted ‘Fire, call 911.’ ” Merrick, who has military firefighting training, was left with scrapes to his knee. Paramedics bandaged his leg.
Zigay said there appeared to have been a fuel source “in the auxiliary buildings built on the back.” What’s left of the buildings will be examined thoroughly, he said.
Also being investigated was the possibility that outside the back of the restaurant is a smoking area, Zigay said. He estimated damage to be about $50,000.
Fisgard Street was closed to vehicles while several fire trucks were on scene. Victoria police contained the area as the incident was mopped up. Passersby looked on and restaurant staff who had been evacuated from the building sat on the sidewalk.
Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin, dressed in a kilt after his official duties at the Victoria Highland Games and Celtic Festival in Topaz Park, visited the scene.
