Sunday, July 26, 2009

Fire in Armstrong may have been arson

Ron Seymour 2009-07-26 Kelowna Courier:

The clubhouse at Armstrong‘s only golf course was destroyed early Saturday by a fire that may have been started by an arsonist. The two-storey, 3,500-square-foot building at the Royal York RV Park and Golf Club, which contained a lounge, restaurant and pro shop, burned quickly after the fire started about 4:15 a.m. “I got over there within minutes of receiving the alarm, and it was already a sickening sight,” Wendy York, one of the family members who share ownership of the golf club and campground, said Saturday. “It was already fully engulfed, and it wound up being a complete loss,” she said. “The building was totally destroyed. We also lost 25 power golf carts.” Del Honeybourne, who lives right across from the golf course on the south side of Armstrong, said there was some suspicious activity around the clubhouse at the time the fire started. “The building‘s alarm woke me up, and then I heard a car racing like mad out of the parking lot,” Honeybourne said. “I looked out our window and saw flames going up from the clubhouse.” Another resident tried to pull the carts away from the building, but they were chained and locked together. The York family developed the nine-hole golf course and 24-site RV park in 1990. Aside from the loss of the clubhouse, there was only minimal damage to a nearby putting green, and no other buildings or vehicles were affected. “The Armstrong volunteer fire department did a great job of making sure the fire didn‘t spread into some nearby trees,” said York, who hopes the golf course might soon resume operations with a temporary structure for a clubhouse.

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