A commercial marijuana facility in Cedar was completely destroyed by a fire over the weekend.
On Saturday, at approximately 5:40 a.m. the North Cedar Fire Department responded to a fire at Royal Green Acres Manufacturing, a medical marijuana grower on Holden-Corso Road.
Percy Tipping, fire chief for North Cedar Fire Department, said when crews arrived on scene a large building was engulfed in flames.
“It was a full working fire,” he said. “The fire actually ended up spreading to three buildings, resulting in a total loss of all three buildings.”
North Cedar firefighters were assisted by members of the Cranberry Fire Department according to Tipping, who said extinguishing the blaze was made more difficult due to lack of access.
“The biggest challenge for us was access due to large hydro feeds there,” he said. “The lines were down and that prevented us from getting real close.”
Tipping said firefighters had to wait for B.C. Hydro to shut off the power to the building. He said crews were focused on containing the fire as best as they could.
“Our goal was trying to keep it from spreading to other buildings, but we were not successful,” he said.
“That’s strictly due to safety. We’ve got massive power feeds laying on the ground, arching, and we just can’t commit members anywhere near that,” Tipping said.
In recent days the weather in the Nanaimo area has been hot and dry, but Tipping said weather was a “positive” factor for firefighters.
“The time of day was good. A little bit of dew, no extreme temperatures and no wind at the time,” he said. “So that was really helpful in preventing it from spreading to other vegetation and surrounding hayfields and trees.”
Although the buildings on the property were home to a medical marijuana producer, Tipping said the nature of the business didn’t make it more challenging for firefighters.
The cause of the blaze has yet to be determined, according to Tipping.