At around 2:30 a.m. PT, Vancouver fire crews responded to reports of flames inside the Ross Street sikh temple.
Flames broke out in a room on the second floor of the recently renovated building, and smoke was billowing from the main doors.
There was too much smoke and heat for firefighters to remain inside the building, so they retreated outside and fought the fire from there.
Battalion Chief Les Achtymichuk says crews had trouble fighting the fire because the temple does not have a sprinkler system.
No one was hurt and firefighters say they were able to remove religious books and other relics before any were damaged.
A cause of the fire has not been determined, and Achtymichuk says it's too early to say if it's suspicious.
"There's a lot of damage in ... a sort of upper room on the second floor. That's where the main concentration of the fire was, so that's where (investigators) are concentrating their investigation," he says.
“We just renovated this building recently. We spent millions of dollars on this building, so whatever happened tonight, it’s really, really very hurting to my whole community,” said Sohan Singh Deo, president of the Khalsa Diwan Society.
According to reports, a wedding was scheduled to take place at the temple this weekend, and it will have to be moved.
The Khalsa Diwan Society, which operates the Ross Street temple, says the gurdwara was built in 1970 and is considered one of the largest in North America.
