Vancouver hotel fire survivors plan to launch class action lawsuit
Posted April 10, 2023 4:53 pm.
Last Updated April 11, 2023 9:53 am.
Tuesday marks one year after a deadly fire ripped through the Winters Hotel in Vancouver’s historic Gastown neighbourhood.
Survivors of the fire, along with the Our Homes Can’t Wait Coalition, say in a news release they are planning to launch a class action lawsuit against Atira Property Management, the City of Vancouver, and Winters Residence Incorporated.
Vince Tao, with the coalition, says there is a rally scheduled for Tuesday afternoon where flowers will be laid at the site of the former single-room occupancy (SRO) hotel, and further details of the lawsuit are expected to be released.
“By filing this class action lawsuit, we’re putting some fire under their asses … sort of calling upon [them] to actually start to address this major systemic issue, which is the lack of safe housing all across the Downtown Eastside, which is leading to of course encampments,” Tao told CityNews.
Tao says fire safety in SROs in Vancouver is a bigger issue than just the Winters Hotel fire.
Read more: Coroner’s inquest to look into deadly Winters Hotel fire in Vancouver
“We’re going to lose more units, people are going to be further traumatized and, unfortunately, the Winters won’t be the first or last building to cause this kind of havoc in the neighborhood,” he said.
The 115-year-old hotel burned to the ground on April 11, 2022, and the bodies of 53-year-old Dennis Guay and 68-year-old Mary Ann Garlow were found over a week later during demolition.
At the time, the Vancouver Police Department said that unattended candles were likely the cause of the blaze, and a preliminary investigation found that the building’s sprinkler system had been turned off days before the fire.
Tao says the lawsuit hopes to make landlords and housing corporations more accountable.
“Hopefully, this class action is a way to at least, at the very least, get the foot in the door because [residents have] been completely shut out of any conversation … around collective fire safety and the state of housing and death on the site.
“Winters will not be swept under the rug and neither will the residents.”
