The site of the July 2023 fire in downtown Vernon as of March 2 (photo by Liam Verster / Vernon Matters)

By Liam Verster

July 2023 Fire

Site of downtown fire to be cleared, no plans for future use

Mar 4, 2024 | 12:00 PM

Eight months after a fire ripped through a building in downtown Vernon, the site is finally ready to be cleared of debris.

On July 4, 2023, a fire erupted in the building on the corner of 30th Street and 29th Avenue, leveling the structure that housed Okanagan Eatery, the Costume House, and other businesses.

Speaking with Vernon Matters, Gary Batula, owner of the property, said work to clear the wreckage from the site was planned to begin this week.

“We’ve got a company that we’ve hired that hopefully should be getting on the clean-up process starting middle to the end of [the week of March 4],” Batula said.

“[Possibly starting] the 7th or 8th. They were supposed to start a little bit earlier but they’ve got a job that’s taken them a little bit longer so they’re tied up with that one and then we’re the next on the list and hopefully we’ll at least get it cleaned up.”

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The clean-up of the site comes roughly eight months after the building burned down, and Batula noted some of the delay is the result of the insurance process.

“Basically it comes down to, if anybody has to deal with an insurance company, trying to get an insurance claim is a nightmare at best, and then you’ve got this person telling that person and then you’re waiting, you’re waiting, you’re waiting,” Batula explained.

“We hired an independent adjuster, which helped out a lot, but the insurance companies want an itemized breakdown of everything; they want an itemized breakdown of what the building was, where this was. You’re trying to reconstruct something from memory to the best of your knowledge. You can only do so much.”

He added “you never come out on top” financially with a total loss of this type, but the adjuster did help with the process.

Batula could not say how long it would take to clear the site, as that will be up to the contractors and could take longer than expected to clear the materials, as was the case with their last job, but did state that having the property cleaned up would be a big relief.

“We’ve been eagerly waiting for this. That building has been in my family for a very, very long time,” Batula told Vernon Matters.

“That was my mom’s costume shop in there for my entire life. My nieces, my nephews, myself, we were all raised in there by mom.

“It’s good to get a little bit of closure on something like that. Just before that fire our father passed away, so mix that in with mom losing her partner of almost 50 years and then her building of almost the same amount of time, that’s a pretty devastating thing for her and the rest of the family. So for us, we just want to move forward.”

He added the scene has been entered since the fire by people searching for items, including copper wiring and personal belongings that were left behind, and he will continue to monitor the site until fully cleared, though noted he can’t spend all his time watching the property.

Batula said he does not have any plans for the future of the site as of yet.

“At the moment we’re just gonna sit back and take a breath and get it cleaned up and then decide later,” the property owner told Vernon Matters.

“It’s been such a process, and so long, that saying what we’re going to do, we don’t know yet. Ideally, we’d love to rebuild, but the cost of building and the cost of everything else is out of control, so how do you rebuild when it’s three times the cost of what it should be?”

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, and the RCMP told Vernon Matters there was no updated information to share as of time of publication.

At the time, police said the cause appeared to be suspicious.