Larry Pidperyhora said he got the call at 4:45 am. Rarely a great hour for phone calls, and it certainly wasn't this time.
Pidperyhora is the general manager of Penticton Toyota at 2405 Skaha Lake Rd. On the phone was his general sales manager, relaying news from a call he in turn had just received from the dealership's alarm company. A fire alarm within the building had been detected.
The GM moved quickly, arriving at his shop just 15 minutes later at 5 am. The brand new Used Car building opened just a month ago on the site of the old Jubilee Motel appeared to be in pristine condition, but the older New Car and Service building next door was indeed burning.
"There were two fire trucks already on site hitting it with water," he said. "It was just smoke at the time (that I could see). There was no visible flames. The smoke was coming out through the cracks in the rafters. The fire was basically living in the rafter space."
But soon enough, the blaze had spread.
"It eventually worked its way around to the other side of the building where it lit up the roof. And then it caved in from the top, over the service department and mechanical bay. That was probably 5:45."
The Penticton Fire Department, in Pidperyhora's estimation, did a "fantastic" job preventing even more spread. We asked how many PFD personnel were on site, and Pidperyhora said he "couldn’t even count them."
"They had, I want to say, five trucks. And I don't know how many people. There were two ladder trucks and two pump trucks. At one point they had lines coming from overhead, they were shooting lines from the bottom. Maybe 50 firefighters in all."
By 8 am, said the GM, the scene was well under control.
"It's such a tough situation," he said. "It's a big area. It's an older part of the building. The newer parts are steel and brick, the older parts are still wood rafters. And because it’s a shop, you have tires and other things that'll cause issues. So that's very tough for these guys."
Pidperyhora called the PFD response, in which two firefighters received "minor" injuries, "phenomenal."
"From my observations, they were very calculated, they were calm, they were communicating very well, and obviously they had a very good plan. My sincerest appreciation goes to them."
Pidperyhora said he's "still processing" his next course of action.
"First things first," he said. "Let's let the fire department do their thing -- determine the cause, determine the origin, determine what we need to go on, then remediation.
"As far as business operations go, we'll be using our Used Car building as a bit of a lifeboat, and then find ways to temporarily move our service operations until we can rebuild."
Pidperyhora added that he won’t comment on the fire's origin. "I don’t want to say anything right now. I want to let the fire department do its thing."
At 10 am, the PFD, through Deputy Chief Rob Trousdell, released a brief statement on the incident, saying crews responded at approximately 4:35 am, arriving to find "flames and smoke showing from rear of building."
It was a "3rd alarm call with mutual aid from Summerland" said the statement. Two firefighters, as mentioned above, received "minor" injuries, and the fire is now in a "salvage and overhaul stage."
We asked Trousdell if there are any suspicions of arson.
"It’s under investigation," he replied. "It appears the fire started on the exterior of the building, so we'll be securing the structure so we can begin our investigation."
For Larry Pidperyhora, it was the "support" he received that helped him through an extremely tough morning.
"Honestly, the amount of support I've received from the community, from other car dealers and other businesses, I'm overwhelemed. I’m eternally grateful for that support and the support of my team.
"We're a team here, we're like a family. But we're going to build back better than ever."
