The Courtenay fire department is working with the RCMP to investigate a fire that shut down the Courtenay Walmart Thursday evening.

According to Courtenay Fire Chief Kurt MacDonald, crews were first alerted around 9:30 p.m., Oct. 10.

鈥淯pon our arrival crews found a small fire contained to the clothing racks in the fashion section and we were able to get a quick knockdown on it鈥� MacDonald said. 鈥漌hen we arrived we had open flame probably about a good eight to ten feet off the ground in the area around where the fire had started鈥�

Staff members and shoppers were quickly evacuated as it began to fill with smoke.

Shopper Holly Riley was at the self-checkout when she the commotion caught her attention.

鈥淚 heard the security guard yell something along the lines like 'fire, fire' and I turned to look and the clothing section was on fire,鈥� she said.

According to Riley, the security guard tried to extinguish the flames with a fire extinguisher and that鈥檚 when the alarm activated.

Leyla Hajam was also in the store, and initially thought the alarms had sounded because of a shoplifting incident.

鈥滻 thought at first it was someone had stolen (something) so they were locking down, and so I was panicking but wasn鈥檛 really sure if it was a fire or not鈥� Hajam said.

Riley says no sprinklers had activated during the blaze.

鈥滺ard to say why the sprinkler system didn鈥檛 activate, it could be that the fire, although it was starting to grow, hadn鈥檛 released enough heat, it could be something wrong with the detector. It鈥檚 something we鈥檒l be looking into as part of the investigation鈥� MacDonald said.

He is hoping surveillance cameras inside the store will help determine how the fire began or if anyone is responsible for causing it. The chief praised the efforts of staff throughout the ordeal.

鈥淭he store did a very good job of evacuating the people that were shopping in there. There was no one in the store when we got here, or found during our primary search, and everybody was staying back. We didn鈥檛 have to deal with traffic or people, it was really good that way鈥� he said.

The store remained closed for the remainder of Thursday evening as crews stayed on scene clearing out smoke. Staff attention will now be focused on how to deal with any damage caused by the blaze.

鈥淚t will be up to the insurance adjusters now to determine what鈥檚 saleable and what鈥檚 going to have to be removed and disposed of,鈥� MacDonald said.