Merritt, B.C., hotel fire deemed suspicious by RCMP

Police in B.C.'s Interior say no one was hurt in a suspicious fire that broke out early Friday morning at the Comfort Inn & Suites hotel in Merritt, about 70 kilometres southwest of Kamloops.

"A significant section of the building was engulfed, resulting in extensive damage. Fire investigators and Merritt RCMP officers remain on scene today gathering evidence and determining the cause of the blaze," Cpl. James Grandy said in a media release.

Leo Charlie and his family were staying at the hotel when the fire broke out just before 2 a.m. PT.

"Everyone was sleeping," he said. "All of a sudden the fire alarms started going off. It was dark and then I started hearing people running down the hallway yelling that there's a fire. It was kinda scary."

Charlie, his wife and two children, aged five and seven, made their way down a fire escape to safety. 

He estimates he saw about 100 people in the parking lot who had evacuated the hotel. 

"It was pretty intense not knowing what was going on and having your kids and family, and at that time of night," he said. "The flames and smoke was coming out of the left side of the building."

Like Charlie, a number of people staying at the hotel were in town for their graduation ceremony from the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology.

He said people displaced from the hotel were being sent to the Mission Community Centre where alternate accommodation was being arranged. 

Anyone with information related to the fire is asked to contact the Merritt RCMP or Crime Stoppers.