Second fire fought in months at former Surrey church building

Crews were called to a fire at a former church building in Surrey Wednesday morning for the second time in matter of months.

The Surrey Fire Service says 16 firefighters responded to reports of a blaze at the back of the unoccupied building on 184 Street north of 70 Avenue, a heritage site and the former Clayton United Church.

Assistant Fire Chief Mike McNamara says the crews knocked the fire down from the outside before it extended, and no one was reported injured.

A different section of the same structure caught fire on Aug. 20, 2025. No one was injured in the August fire either.

Once a church, the building was more recently a performing arts theatre called Surrey Little Theatre and has since been a private residence.

City of Surrey documents show the owners applied for a demolition permit following the August fire.

In October, the Surrey Heritage Advisory Commission abstained from a decision about the application until further investigation into the cause of the fire was conducted.  

In September, the commission said the Heritage Planner had not had any correspondence with the owners of the church since the fire.

Images from the scene show the building fenced off, boarded up, and still badly damaged from one or both fires.

Crews had temporarily closed 184 Street between Fraser Highway and 71 Avenue Wednesday, but the road reopened around 11:30 a.m.