LETHBRIDGE, ALTA. -- A fire outside of a downtown Lethbridge grocery store early Wednesday morning melted utility lines, and caused fire and smoke damage, but the store owners say it could have been worse.
“Nobody was hurt, it’s just lost inventory, things that can be replaced,” said Patricia Luu, owner of Umami Shop Canada.
Still Luu said it’s another setback, at a time when they are struggling to keep the store going during the pandemic. “During the pandemic it’s hard to get things in," she said.
A Lethbridge woman has been charged with setting fire to wood pallets and cardboard piled up against the building in the early morning hours on May 13.
Lethbridge Fire and EMS put out the fire, but the heat damaged overhead TELUS lines, and smoke seeped into the warehouse. Luu said products like rice and vegetables will have to be thrown out, and they are still waiting for an assessment on some of the other goods.
“We have orders coming in, and we can’t fill them because of the predicament that we’ve been put in.”
According to Luu the fire also knocked out the store's IT system, which caused a disruption to phone service and prevented customers from placing online orders.
Luu said it was fortunate the incident happened Wednesday, because the store hadn’t yet received orders for its popular live cooking show. The products that will be included in this weekend’s cooking kits arrived on Thursday.
The business posted a message to the public on its Facebook page: “We are so heartbroken and in shock to let you know about what happened” They also asked for help in identifying the person responsible.
Luu said the community response has been overwhelmingly positive, “A lot of great comments. Great people who are behind us, offering like, if you need help to clean up.”
Police said the female suspect was identified through surveillance video. 27-year-old Mary-Lee Parks was located Thursday morning and arrested without incident. She is charged with arson, possession of a controlled substance and breach of an undertaking. Police allege some meth was seized during the arrest. Parks is in custody awaiting a Judicial Interim Release hearing.
