Regina police investigating north-end Walmart fire

The Regina Police Service is asking for the public’s help as it investigates a fire that broke out in the city’s north Walmart on Rochdale Boulevard.

A media release from the police service said they were called there Tuesday at about 8:20 p.m.

Merissa Scarlett was at the store with her husband for some Christmas shopping when they heard a call over the store intercom about the fire.

“We walked out. There was a giant fire … The flame, it was higher than the shelves in the back of the store. It was pretty crazy,” she said.

Leading up to that point, “basically it was pretty quiet. Then when the intercom started going, it didn’t really click into what was going on.”

Regina firefighters attend to a fire inside a Walmart store in the north end of the city on Dec. 10, 2019. (Screen grab from video by Jordan Blodgett/Facebook)

Scarlett said, “Somebody started calling on the intercom that there was a fire and people started running out.”

She commended the staff for getting “everybody out of the store quickly and calmly.”

She estimated there were 100 or fewer people in the store at the time.

The Regina Fire Department said approximately 40 of the people in the store were staff members.

Assistant Fire Chief Dustin McCullough said the department dispatched five trucks to the store to extinguish the fire, adding that’s a standard number for a structure fire.

He confirmed that fire department staff are still investigating the cause, along with the Regina Police Service. He doesn’t yet know if the fire is suspicious.

Scarlett said that after seeing photos of the fire on social media, she believes it broke out in the paper towel and toilet paper section of the store.

“When it caught fire, it was going pretty hard,” she said.

Regina police are asking anyone who has information about the fire to contact them or Crime Stoppers.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Joseph Ho