Dozens of units were destroyed and several others damaged when a fire ripped through a section of a storage facility in Keating early Tuesday morning.
Central Saanich Fire Department received a call around 2 a.m. that a row of storage units at the Keating Self Storage facility off Veyaness Road were on fire.
“The call came in as a structure fire and by the time I arrived it was already in full flame, (going) through the roof of the storage facility,” Fire Chief Ron French said. “It took about 40 minutes for us to get it under control and then another hour and bit to clean it up. We were on scene for about two hours dealing with it.”
The cause of the blaze had yet to be determined by Wednesday afternoon. French said he doesn’t expect the answer will be easy to find, due to the extent of the fire.
“To figure out where it started or what started it will be almost impossible, because in storage lockers, you don’t know what people have put in there.”
A total of 28 units were destroyed and six others sustained smoke damage. The entire row of units, including those lockers that weren’t affected will have to be demolished and rebuilt, French said.
He added that people renting lockers in the structure that were not damaged will be relocated to other units in the large complex.
The owner of Keating Self-Storage chose not to comment on the fire, given the ongoing investigation over the cause.