Fire destroys northwest Calgary restaurant, police say blaze isn’t suspicious

Dozens of firefighters and numerous engines packed the streets in Calgary’s Kensington Monday night, as the roof of a restaurant went up in flames.

Shortly after 10 p.m. Monday, smoke and flames could be seen ripping and pouring through the roof of some restaurants on the corner of Kensington Road and 10 Street NW, as a sea of yellow firetruck hose layered the street.

Videos online showed firefighters having to use chainsaws to disassemble part of the roof, after they got the two alarm blaze under control.

No one was hurt in the fire, and investigators were trying to piece together exactly what happened and how it started in the immediate aftermath.

Now, Calgary police tell CityNews that the fire is not considered suspicious and no investigation will be taking place at this time.

Just last week, this exact same area was approved for a 16-storey tower, and council had unanimously approved the land to be redesignated.

This didn’t happen without some push back from people living in the neighbourhood — a recent town hall had people voicing their concerns, and there were many — mostly on how a 16-storey building wouldn’t fit the general feel of the area.

There has been pushback for years on a proposal to build a residential tower on this site.

Back in 2015, the family that owns one of the restaurants pushed to have a tower built and council voted against it.

Two years later, a lawsuit was filed against former city councillor Druh Farrell, leading to a very lengthy legal battle dipped in controversy.

Now, there’s lots of uncertainty on what’s next for the area.

Current Coun. Terry Wong, says it has nothing to do with a recent land use re-designation on that property.

“It’s certainly devastating because you don’t want to see that loss of property, loss of life, or anything as such when you see fire damages like that,” he said. “As many know, council approved the land use re-designation for the site a week ago allowing a 16-storey.”

“But, I don’t think this is related.”

The Calgary Fire Department is asking anyone with photos, videos, or information on the fire, especially before firefighters arrived, to email piofire@calgary.ca