Vancouver crews put out electrical fire under Science World boardwalk

Vancouver Fire Rescue Services was called to Science World Monday morning for reports of smoke coming from the boardwalk.

Public Information Officer Matthew Trudeau tells CityNews firefighters responded around 8:45 a.m. after hearing about smoke around the waterway behind the building.

“There were approximately 10 apparatus on scene, including two fire boats,” he explained.

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He says getting access to the fire was challenging, given its location and the tide at the time.

“This time was high tide so there was no option of getting land-based fire operations into that area,” Trudeau said.

“We did have two fire boats attend and get water underneath there from our deck guns and master streams on the fire boats, which wasn’t overly helpful, so we actually got crews into small boats with hand lines from the fire boats underneath. There was about a six-foot gap between the water and the walkway at high tide.”

Trudeau says there was no damage inside Science World and no injuries reported.

It’s unclear what exactly caused the fire, which was electrical in nature.

“It’s obviously a very high-value building with a lot of people potentially inside of it. So out of an abundance of caution, we made sure everyone was out of the adjacent structure,” Trudeau told CityNews.

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