Sombre anniversary of deadly Winters Hotel fire marked with Vancouver march
Posted April 11, 2024 12:10 pm.
Last Updated April 11, 2024 7:13 pm.
April 11, 2024, marks two years since a deadly fire at the Winters Hotel in Vancouver claimed the lives of two people and displaced dozens of others.
At the site of the now-demolished building, about two dozen people gathered Thursday to pay tribute to and call for justice for Mary Ann Garlow and Dennis Guay.
Those in attendance marched through Gastown and Downtown Eastside as part of the memorial. As they chanted and held up signs to express their disappointment, those taking part in the march called for changes to the management of single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels in the city.
The march made its way to the offices of Atira — which operated the Winters Hotel — before ending at Oppenheimer Park.
Jennifer Hansma, who survived the 2022 fire, is behind a class-action lawsuit that is working its way through court.
“I hope Atira realizes that we are people down here, we still live down here, and we’re still dealing with the day-to-day trauma of being in the fire and them not supporting us,” she told CityNews.
She says the toll the fire has had on residents’ mental health is extensive, adding, “a lot of people don’t sleep, I don’t sleep.”
“I thank God everyday that I do have my stipends job that I can go to and not think about this every day. But if I was like my neighbour, she’s stuck in it every day, she can’t get out of it. I feel sorry for the people who don’t have a place where they can disappear to and not think about this constantly, because it’s constantly in our face,” Hansma, who has since moved into another SRO, the Columbia, explained.
Officials have said candles left on a bed sparked the flames that burned down the SRO. Due to the fire, 71 people were forced from their homes.
Crews working to demolish the building in the wake of the fire discovered the bodies of 53-year-old Guay and 68-year-old Ann Garlow inside the building.
The 115-year-old heritage building, which was over 100 years old, was operating as an 89-room SRO hotel for long-term tenants.
In January of this year, a coroner’s inquest heard that sprinklers in the building didn’t work because they hadn’t been reset after a smaller fire three days earlier.
The inquest made more than two dozen recommendations, including that BC Housing work with operators and owners to ensure SRO buildings are held to higher fire safety standards than the minimum.
The jury added fire precautions should be upgraded in SRO hotels, which cater to some of the city’s most vulnerable people, including backup fire extinguishers and a “buddy system” to help people with disabilities in the event of a fire.
The jury ruled the deaths of Garlow and Guay as accidental, caused by thermal injuries and smoke inhalation.
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