Woman ordered to pay over $500,000 for Vancouver apartment fire
Posted January 14, 2023 5:02 pm.
Last Updated January 14, 2023 5:05 pm.
A woman was found liable to pay over $500,000 for a fire that broke out in her Vancouver apartment in 2017.
The B.C. Supreme Court ruled that Angela Chou was negligent in causing the fire that damaged her unit and 10 others in the Langara Gardens building.
A fire investigator who testified before the court says the fire started when a lamp in Chou’s apartment made contact with household items that then spread rapidly due to the large amount of possessions packed densely throughout the unit.
“I am satisfied Ms. Chou created an objectively foreseeable and unreasonable risk of harm – and risk of fire in particular – to Langara and the other tenants by keeping her apartment in a near-hoarding state,” Justice Matthew Kirchner wrote. “The densely-packed and stacked combustible material presents a clear fire hazard that could be set off by something as simple as the halogen lamp which burns very hot.
The court found that Chou is liable for the costs of repair, restoration and lost rent incurred by Langara Gardens after the fire.
The total amount of damages was worth $568,995.49.
