Story and photos by Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
The Main St. Osoyoos fire that claimed local business Loco Amigos on Friday was contained and Main St. opened to traffic again about 4:30 p.m. after a nearly four hour battle by firefighters from Osoyoos Fire Rescue and one crew with assistance from both the Oliver Fire Department and Anarchist Mountain Fire Department to bring it to heel.
By about 3:30 p.m. the fire was largely under control with fire crews still on the scene pouring water into the still smouldering building and beginning mop up.
Traffic was still being diverted as a one block section of Main St. from 85th to 87th Street is still closed off to traffic as it had been from just after noon.
It’s unclear at this point what damage the two adjacent buildings suffered – the building to west housing Hemz Old Skool Cafe and to the east housing Unity Clothing and Rudy’s Flooring – but firefighters appeared to pay particular attention to the adjoining buildings which looked to have escaped any apparent serious damage.
At one point firefighters knocked in the door of the one-year old cafe enabling them to assess the ongoing fire at that the time.
The Loco Amigos building however was much less fortunate with the nearly four-hour long fire gutting much of the inside of the structure, but leaving it still standing. The business opened last year after undergoing an extensive period of renovations.
The Times Chronicle will update as more information is available. Here are more images from the fire from earlier this afternoon.
