4 — Wednesday, February 28, 1996 ~ North Shore News

Toilet explodes, fire
rips through eatery

FIRE GUTTED a recently
vandalized restaurant in
Lower Lonsdale on Monday
morning.

By Jan Noble and
Anna Marie D'Angelo

Police say the blaze caused
$50,000 to $100,000 damage to the
one-storey Hot Bread-Hot Kebab
restaurant at 71 Lonsdale.

The fire also caused minor dam-
age to a building to the south and
heavy smoke damage to the adja-
cent Comics Scene store, said
North Vancouver City Fire and
Rescue assistant chief Dave
Burgess.

Burgess said flames burst
through the front window of the
restaurant when firefighters
arrived.

Firefighters cut a ‘hole in the
roof to cool the fire’s heat and clear
the smoke, said Burgess.

The “quick, aggressive” ap-
proach allowed firefighters to knock
down the fire quickly, he added.

Investigators spent 12 hours at
the scene and have ruled out a num-
ber of accidental causes.

Arson has not been ruled wut as
a possible cause of the fire.

Police are assisting in the inves-
tigation.

Burgess praised tenants of an
adjacent building for alerting other
tenants and the fire department to
the 4:35 a.m. fire.

A toilet exploded on Feb. i7 at
the same Lower Lonsdale restuu-
rant.

Police say they arrived at the
restaurant to find toilet bowl frag-
ments and water all over the walls
and ceiling of the restaurant's
washroom.

The restaurant's owner told
police that the sole customer in the
eatery at the time had used the
washroom ‘twice prior to the blast,
said a spokesman for the North

Vancouver RCMP .

The restaurant owner said he
caught the customer as he was run-
ning out of the restaurant around
the time of the explosion.

Police say the suspect was
found to be armed with a metal rod
in his sleeve, a knife strapped to his
belt loop and another knife
strapped to his ankle.

He also had a razor blade
strapped to his left wrist and car-
ried two cans of pepper spray.

Police found remnants of fire-
works and a fuse in the washroain
debris.

Charged in connection with the
incident is Jonathan Kornel
Mushey, 20, of Vancouver.

Mushey is charged with com-
mitting mischief, careless use of
explosives, obtaining food by false
pretences, possessing a dangerous
weapon and possessing a prohibit-
ed weapon. Police say he is sched-
uled for a court appearance in
North Vancouver today.

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