Multi-unit fire burns in downtown Vancouver high-rise: VFRS
Posted October 21, 2024 4:25 pm.
Last Updated October 22, 2024 9:46 am.
Crews say a fire that broke out in a high-rise residential building, impacting multiple units on different floors in downtown Vancouver on Monday afternoon, is under investigation.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO 1130 NEWSRADIO VANCOUVER LIVE!Vancouver Fire Rescue Services shared a post to X around 7:40 p.m. announcing the completion of their operations. They say the fire investigation is ongoing.
Alberni Street was previously closed to traffic between Cardero Street and Nicola Street as crews tackled the fire 20 storeys above the ground in the afternoon.
Vancouver Fire Rescue Services Public Information Officer Capt. Matthew Trudeau says three units were heavily damaged in the fire, and there were a number of floors below that were affected by water damage.
Firefighters saw flames and burning material coming off the upper level when they first got on the scene.
“Obviously a very serious situation, and we had a lot of debris coming off onto Nicola on arrival,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau says so far there are no reports of any injuries.
As of Tuesday morning, Trudeau says fire investigators are back at the scene of the fire going over more evidence and information.
“It was a challenging scene,” he said. “We responded initially to a fire alarm activation with two crews responding to it, which we get about 40 or 50 times a day,” he said.
“As the crew was walking up to the 20th floor to investigate, the crew that was responding with them saw building material starting to come off, and saw the glow of the fire starting to break its way through the windows, and they upgraded the alarm to get more crews there quickly,” Trudeau explained.
“Because the number of floors, and the work required to get all the equipment and the hoses and cylinders up requires a lot of work and a lot of crews going back and forth.
“We did control the elevators as well — that was helpful — and then eventually got the fire out. But there were numerous challenges on scene, especially for falling debris and igniting fires on the ground as well; we had hedges on fires starting from the building material coming off.”
Trudeau explains that due to the age of the building, a sprinkler system wasn’t installed above the second floor.
“No sprinklers was obviously a contributing factor to the rapid progression of flames, where in a sprinkler building, we expect to see the fire controlled until firefighters get up there to support extinguishment,” he said.
Trudeau adds that all in all, the VFRS responded with about 14 trucks and had 50 personnel on scene.
During the fire, posts to social media showed black smoke issuing from the area and debris falling onto the street below.
Speaking to 1130 NewsRadio on Tuesday morning, one resident explained that her husband and dog were at home at the time of the fire.
“He didn’t even realize really what was happening until he smelled a little bit of smoke,” she said. “By then, everything was shut down, so he couldn’t get out of the building.”
“It was pretty scary. We are on the eighth floor though, so he was safe. There was a little bit of smoke, but so many other people were so much worse off.
“We were able to come back in around 7:30 p.m. last night. We have one elevator working, cold water, and no gas. But that’s hardly an imposition compared to everyone else. I just feel so bad for them,” she said.
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