Massive Dunbar blaze created its own ‘firestorm’: VFRS chief

As Vancouver Fire Rescue Services crews were responding to a fire at an abandoned apartment building in Mount Pleasant Tuesday afternoon, a second call came in for help after another structure went up in flames on the other side of the city.

In an update Wednesday morning, Fire Chief Karen Fry explained just how big the response was after the fire on West 41st Avenue in the city’s Dunbar neighbourhood created “its own kind of firestorm.” CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO 1130 NEWSRADIO VANCOUVER LIVE!

“We had a fire on East 10th Avenue at approximately 4:30 p.m. It quickly escalated into what we would call a second alarm fire, with multiple rigs on scene. … We successfully put out those flames, but in the midst of that fire, another fire was reported,” she explained.

“The fire, in the Dunbar neighbourhood, [was reported] at about 6:30 p.m. After our crews arrived on scene, a crane was also collapsing. Embers from this fire, which was a six-storey wood-frame building under construction, were igniting additional fires.

“Our emergency personnel responded with everything we had. We had two rigs left in our city at one point in time. We made changes to our responses to other calls,” Fry explained.

The collapsing crane also took down trolley wires and power lines with it. A gas line rupture also caught fire, though crews were able to get that under control quickly.

At any given time, the City of Vancouver has approximately 150 firefighters on duty, Fry explained, including more than 35 available apparatus. Fry shared that there were upwards of 70 firefighters, “if not more,” working to knock down the Dunbar fire, while crews were also redeploying from the Mount Pleasant fire at the same time.

“The thing is, not all of them were on scene. Once other fires started popping up, we started deploying resources to some of the other fires in the Dunbar neighbourhood, and many of those were responded to with one engine and four crew to try and tackle a fire on the outside,” she explained.

“We had fire chiefs doing everything they could to put out the fires, to stop them from spreading. … It was all hands on deck.

“I’m super proud of the work they did, also very proud and very thankful for the work of Ecomm. If you could just imagine the number of calls that came into Ecomm … the information they had, the resources that they put up, and the assistance that they have our crews and our city was remarkable.”

Fry said it was “remarkable” that no one was hurt.

“We’re very fortunate that no lives were lost, for anybody that has seen the video, or seen any of the pictures of either of the fires, that the residents in our community are safe,” she said.

“We do have a couple of firefighters with minor injuries. They were doing everything that they could, with 100 per cent effort to maintain and put out these fires.”

While there were no injuries reported, one person is incredibly lucky to be alive after the crane fell on their home.

“When you can see how close this crane came, it actually landed on a house — in the middle of a house — and an individual was trapped inside that house. Between our firefighters and VPD, we extricated that patient from a window in order to evacuate them from a house, when it was safe to do so.”

Fry shared that two extra homes were lost to the Dunbar fire as a result of embers from the main apartment fire.

“Two separate homes, one directly next door, and one several blocks away, that was reported at about 4 a.m. this morning,” she said.

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Fry explained the cause of the separate building fires is still under investigation.

As of Wednesday morning, Fry added there are currently no active fires, however, crews remain in Dunbar to monitor the remaining hotspots.

Road closures are still in place to ensure safety, Fry explained.

“All residents on the north and south side of W. 41st Avenue between Blenheim and Collingwood (3300-3400 block) and south side of W. 40th between Blenheim and Collingwood have been evacuated and cannot return home,” the City of Vancouver shared in a statement Wednesday.

“Those outside this area may return home. BC Hydro is currently working to restore power to these areas. People with underlying breathing conditions are advised to leave the affected area and find a safe indoor space.”

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