Fire guts long-standing supermarket in Richmond's Steveston ...

A fire on Friday evening gutted the Super Grocer store in the Steveston neighbourhood in Richmond, B.C., with the city's mayor saying it was a big loss.

Officials say the fire at the Super Grocer, which is located on No. 1 Road near the Steveston Community Park, started around 5 p.m. PT on Friday.

While firefighters said no one was injured in the blaze, they called the raging flames a "structural hazard" Friday night and could not send firefighters in to the building for fears of a roof collapse.

Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie told reporters that the fire seemed to have started in the back of the store, and shoppers and staff left the store quickly afterwards.

"It's an institution in the community of Richmond ... a place that people have gone to for decades and decades," he said. "It's a real loss to the people of the City of Richmond, and particularly for Steveston residents."

Brodie said he hoped that the store's owners are able to rebuild the store, and he was thankful that no one seems to have been caught in the fire.

The Super Grocer store opened in 1979, and is a family business that has been run by multiple generations of the Lu family.

Trevor Northrup, the assistant deputy fire chief of Richmond Fire-Rescue, said that smoke coming out of the building Friday night made it difficult for firefighters to make entry.

He said the cause of the blaze was not clear as of Friday evening, and fire investigators would continue to interview witnesses to find out what happened.