Burnaby Marine Pub destroyed in suspicious 3-alarm blaze

The Burnaby Marine Pub at 5820 Marine Drive has been completely destroyed by fire.

Fire crews were dispatchedto the scene around 2:30 a.m. PT Saturday and quickly called for more units to fight the blaze.

Assistant Fire Chief Bryan Kirk said the fireappears to have started at the rear of the building.

"There were some plastic deck chairs out there from what I understand. The fire initiated in the back. Those were the first reports we got from dispatch," Kirk said."

It was a big of a long run down here, probably about a six or seven minute response. By the time we got here, the fire had already vented through the roof so we were forced to take a defensive mode, and we had an exposure next to the building so that was our biggest concern was to prevent the spread of the fire to the neighbouring beer and wine store which we successfully did."

At one point, the entire Burnaby Fire Department was fighting the three-alarm blaze and off-duty personnel had to be called in to man the reserve trucks.

"We had about 11 trucks here which I want to say is about 34 firefighters," Kirk said. "We just about tapped out the whole department with the third alarm. We had two remaining trucks in Burnaby so we had to call some guys from off-duty to man the spare trucks."

Police have been called in and fire investigators are back on scene trying to pinpoint the exact cause of the fire, but Kirk said it appearssuspicious.

On mobile? Click here for a map showing the pub's location