Vape shop on Commercial Drive deliberately set on fire: police – BC | 24CA News
A fireplace sparked at a vape store on Commercial Drive was deliberately set, in keeping with Vancouver Police.
The Vapester Smoke Shop on Commercial Drive and East 4th Avenue was attacked Monday evening.
Video reveals a masked individual with gloves and a hoodie stroll as much as the shop with a jug of gasoline, pour it on the doorway, gentle it on hearth and stroll away.
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“It happened within 10 seconds,” in keeping with shopkeeper Mohiuddin Azam.
“If the lady customer left the store 10 seconds earlier, she would have been burned, literally. She was so close to the door and then the doors started burning.”
According to police, Vancouver Fire responded to the fireplace April 3 round 8:30 p.m. and an investigation is now underway.
“An initial investigation revealed the fire was intentionally set,” in keeping with Cst. Tania Visintin with Vancouver Police.
The terrifying incident rattled clients and workers who had been inside throughout the hearth.
“It was so scary. The customer, she was literally crying. Our employee made sure the fire settled down by using the extinguisher and doing everything to put it out,” Azam defined.
Security cameras inside caught the worker leaping into motion with the fireplace extinguisher and releasing it on the sudden hearth nearly as shortly because it began.
Azam says fortunately nobody was damage and he credit his co-worker for his fast response.
“He knows how to use a fire extinguisher. We provide training for emergency situations and how to deal with customers.”
Azam says he has no concept why somebody would goal the business and nothing like this occurred since opening in 2017.
“I really don’t know. It was a random guy. The police officer said that it was a competitor, and my competition may have sent him because he was fully professional. He was wearing safety gloves; anti-flammable clothes and he was fully covered with a mask and hoodie.”
The hearth left cracks within the entrance door home windows and a few burns had been left on the partitions by the doorway.
No arrests have been made to date.
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