Fire in Vancouver at Abbott and Hastings causes transit delays
Posted February 6, 2023 8:45 pm.
Last Updated February 6, 2023 9:10 pm.
A building fire in Vancouver Monday night caused traffic and transit delays at the intersection of Abbott St. and Hastings St.
According to a spokesperson from TransLink, five Vancouver bus routes and one Burnaby bus route were experiencing delays of nearly 30 minutes.
Affected routes were the 3, 8, 14, 16, 20, and R5.
Over Twitter around 8:30 p.m., TransLink announced all affected routes no longer experiencing delays.
#RiderAlert 3, 8, 14, 16, 20, & R5 downtown detours have cleared. Service is back to regular route in all directions. Thank you for your patience. ^kg
— TransLink BC (@TransLink) February 7, 2023
Vancouver Fire Assistant Chief Ken Gemmill says the fire started on the third floor of a multi-story building and was self-contained to a suite.
“We saw heavy smoking flames coming from the suite…We are able to breach the door and we entered, and it was pretty well extinguished. It was destroyed with some help from the sprinklers,” Gemmill explained.
Gemmill says Vancouver Fire and Rescue was able to pull a patient out of the building, and the patient was dealing with burns and smoke inhalation.
He adds the fire was initially called in around 6:30 p.m. Monday evening.
