Crews called to ‘suspicious fire’ in Chinatown

The Vancouver Fire Rescue Services was called to Chinatown for a “suspicious fire” Sunday afternoon.

Assistant Fire Chief Ken Gemmill says crews first noticed smoke coming from the back of the Chinese Cultural Centre on East Pender Street near Columbia Street.

“There was some charring, some flames in the back area of both those buildings, so they hit that first and then we had fire attack teams enter the building and try to find the seat of the fire because there seemed to be more smoke inside the second floor than anywhere else.”

Gemmill says they declared it a second alarm due to how large the two-storey building is. The Vancouver Police Department was also on the scene to deal with traffic.

“They quickly got video surveillance of the area that appears to be a suspicious fire. So, they’ve got the arson squad coming down as well as our fire investigator to dig deeper into who would have lit it from the outside,” Gemmill said.

“It appears to be that someone may have thrown some flaming debris over the fence. That’s kind of what they’re investigating right now.”

Related Articles:

• East Vancouver business devastated after fire destroys building

• Crews fight East Hastings building fire

Fire crews kept an eye on an adjacent building as well, which is empty and for sale.

A firefighter was injured and taken to the hospital for a hand injury.

It’s been a busy weekend for Vancouver’s fire crews with four second-alarm fires over the last three days. On Saturday, crews battled a fire on East Hastings between Jackson and Princess Avenues.