On my bike ride to work today I noticed that West 4th was blocked off between Arbutus and Maple and that there were an awful lot of firefighters walking around. Turns out there’s been a large fire at Bimini’s early this morning.
Early reports suggest that this was no small kitchen fire, but no reports yet on the total damage.
[UPDATE: See this Flickr set by thelastminute for some photos of firefighters trying to control the fire. It also appears that Ryan Nadel from NowPublic is on the scene, filing regular updates on the fire.] [UPDATE 2: Damage to the oldest of three buildings that make up Bimini’s is said to be substantial and whether or not this building can be saved is now up to city engineers (see Global BC for a video segment from their news at noon).]
Last modified: October 12, 2021
It’s a sad day – Bimini’s Pub was the birthplace of Greenpeace – the founders of the organization originally had a small office across the street and this was their afterwork hangout.
A very sad day indeed. Reno’s just finishing up, hockey starting on Friday – where will we all go? I have too many memories of that place to count – it is a legend in Kits
it was a shocking scene this morning. the smoke was so think it seemed like the entire neighbourhood was on fire. Thanks for the link to my post on NowPublic.
I found that place to be very cheesy and the food boring. Very sad though to see a building built in 1910 lost to fire.
It’s devastating. Bimini’s was our version of “Cheers”. It’s hard to find a place like that where you know all of the staff and can always count on having a great time whether it’s watching a hockey game or dancing the night away. Let’s all hope that they are able to rebuild soon!
I was never particularly fond of the bar myself, but it was an institution nonetheless. It will be sad to see it shut down. Anyone know if they are planning to rebuild?
Biminis is (was) located at 2010 West 4th Ave. Hmmm… perhaps the fire is some sort of publicity stunt paving the way for a grand reopening in time for the 2010 Olympics. I can just picture it now, Biminis reborn from fire into the new Biminis Phoenix – an eternal flame will be lit (Tatlows-style) by the Olympic Torch itself.