Vancouver SPCA sheltering pets displaced by Winters Hotel fire in Gastown

Pets displaced by the fire that ripped through the Winters Hotel in Gastown on April 11 are being offered shelter by the BC SPCA.

The group says it’ll provide free board until owners are able to find more permanent housing.

According to the SPCA, there are currently five cats and two kittens receiving emergency boarding, at no cost to their owners. The organization says it’s reaching out to other residents to help.

“We can only imagine how difficult and upsetting this is for these residents, so we are here to help in any way we can,” said Jodi Dunlop, manager of the Vancouver SPCA.

Dunlop notes the SPCA is in “regular touch with the building officials” to let them know support is available. In addition to shelter, the SPCA is providing emergency funding to Winters Hotel residents for things like pet food and supplies.

Staff at the SPCA are also donating clothing to residents who lost their homes in the fire, the organization says.

According to BC Housing, 144 people in total were forced out when a fire tore through the building Monday morning.

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Related articles: 

• Five people taken to hospital from fire in Vancouver’s Gastown

• Gastown building to be torn down following fire; 144 people displaced

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Of that number, 73 people lived in the Winters Hotel, an 89-room a single-room occupancy (SRO) hotel that comprised the upper floors of the building. Many of them were low income.

It’s still unclear what caused the fire. Officials have said the building, which is over 100 years old, sustained so much damage that it will have to be torn down.

The fire sent five people to the hospital.

-With files from Denise Wong and Michael Williams