A Tuesday night fire at the Petro-Canada service station at Douglas and Government streets was quickly extinguished by Victoria firefighters before reaching any fuel.
The fire was not suspicious and has no connection to a series of arson fires in the general vicinity last year, said City of Victoria spokesperson Colleen Mycroft.
She said Tuesday’s fire did substantial damage to the roof over the pump area.
One of the pumps was scorched, as well.
The business was closed at the time.
Victoria police attended and directed traffic during the incident.
“Crews did a great job of knocking it down and keeping the area safe,” Mycroft said. “They made sure everything around it was cool and watered down to prevent the spread.”
She said the cause of the fire has not been determined but it might be electrical in origin.
Last August, police arrested a man in connection with three nearby arson fires and one in Saanich set in a three-month period.
The nearby fires included a June 23 blaze at a Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and two July 12 at Three Point Motors — where a Mercedes convertible was set alight — and at a loading dock at a cleaning-supply business.
Edwin Vikash Singh pleaded guilty in March to setting those three fires, as well as two set in August in the parking lot of Staples in Saanich and two in Nanaimo earlier in the year.
Another arson occurred June 16 a few blocks away at Douglas and Burnside Road East at Ricky’s All Day Grill, causing extensive that led to the building being torn down.
A surveillance photo of a suspect in that fire was released in January.
