ARSON SUSPECTED AFTER SHOPS GO UP IN SMOKE

Last Thursday, four days after a neighbouring building burned down in
a massive blaze, staff at the B.C. Marijuana Party headquarters and
bookstore on the 300-block of West Hastings Street were back at work.

In a room at the back of the shop, Marc Emery was flipping through a
newspaper, while workers from a fire and flood restoration company
dragged equipment in to clean up the remaining damage in the basement.

There was little other evidence of the fire, which also destroyed
Spartacus Books, Blunt Brothers cafe and Cabbages and Kinks vintage
clothing store next door, along with some upstairs apartments-the
odour of pot camouflaged any smoky smell.

But the uninsured Marijuana Party store did suffer damages in the
$15,000 range, according to Emery, who was flying back from
Saskatchewan when he learned of the fire, which authorities say was
set deliberately.

"You wouldn't believe the rubble out back-it looked like a war zone,"
he said.

Clean-up inside began immediately so staff could start selling
clothes, books and pot paraphernalia by last Tuesday to minimize
financial losses.

Smoky clothes were sent to the dry cleaners and will be sold at half
price.

Ceiling panels were replaced, soggy carpets removed and walls
scrubbed.

Emery, who thinks the fire was set by a disgruntled ex-employee at one
of the destroyed businesses, maintains reopening quickly was key so
customers didn't think the business was shut down for good.

But with rent due in a couple days, employees will likely have to wait
to collect their full salaries.

Blunt Brothers cafe has relocated next to the Marijuana Party's
store in the former New Amsterdam cafe.

Run by the same owners as the Blunt Brothers, the New Amsterdam had
shut down about two weeks earlier.

"For the time being, this is the only spot we have available to us,"
said Blunt Brothers employee Chad Hamilton.

Rob Jones-Cook, media spokesman for Vancouver Fire and Rescue
Services, said the buildings on either side of the one that was gutted
were fortunate not to have been engulfed by the flames.

The fact they were constructed at different times with separate walls
was likely the only saving grace.

"The fire would have to go through two sets of brick walls before it
would spread," Jones-Cook said.

An unknown accelerant - it's now being analyzed - was used to spark the
blaze, which attracted 50 firefighters and 11 trucks.

Poured against the back door, the accelerant trickled under the door,
which had no sill to stop it.

At least two dumpsters were also doused with the accelerant. One was
rolled over by the door to an alcove area.

"When they were ignited, the fire jumped from the dumpster to the door
and then, of course, it worked its way down the door, following the
pattern of the accelerant," Jones-Cook said. "That's how it got into
the building and away so fast."

Built in the 1890s, the building likely had no sprinkler system to
prevent the fire's rapid spread, he said.

Renovations can also contribute to a fire's spread in older
buildings-false or drop ceilings, for example, create a space that's
difficult for firefighters to get at.

What's known as balloon construction was another factor in this blaze.
That type of construction doesn't use fire stops, which, in the late
19th century, would have consisted of pieces of two by fours that fit
between the studs running up the walls.

"When the fire came up, it would hit that and run into an
obstruction-all of those fire stops are absent, so once a fire gets
into the wall, it just races from the bottom straight up to the top."

Because of the extent of the fire, firefighters were pulled out of the
building quickly.