SRO unit fire started by butane torch: Vancouver Fire Rescue Services

The Vancouver Fire Rescue Services were on scene at a single-room occupancy hotel Wednesday morning after a fire broke out in a unit.

The fire, in an SRO on West Pender Street near Hamilton Street, was quickly knocked down, fire information officer Capt. Matthew Trudeau told 1130 NewsRadio.

“It was controlled by the sprinkler system, thankfully,” he said. “Then crews made the final extinguishment in the unit.”

Trudeau explains that two people were in the unit at the time of the fire.

“They both overdosed in the unit and were transported to hospital. I don’t believe they had any significant injuries from the fire,” he explained.

“The sprinklers knocked down the fire fairly quickly, preventing any extremely serious injuries.”

Trudeau says VFRS’s initial investigations point to a butane torch being the source of how the fire began.

“Discarded smoking materials,” Trudeau shared.

As crews were able to knock the fire down quickly, no other residents have been displaced, Trudeau explains. Crews were also able to get to the sprinkler system within a short time to limit the amount of water damage.

“We’re running into a large number [of these kinds of fires] daily, if not a couple times a day,” Trudeau said.

“Thankfully, these two persons were transported, and they were both alert when we saw them transported, but again, the severity of the overdose, combined with the fire makes for a very dangerous life-threatening condition inside the unit.

“We’re having at least one a day, if not two or three, where we’re having a unit with a large enough fire to set off a sprinkler head — the ceiling reaching 135 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking the bulb. Thankfully, the sprinkler systems worked to contain that from spreading into other units or other floors.

“One of the biggest intervening factors here was really getting crews there as quickly as we could, getting the two individuals out, and then start providing first aid, oxygen and reviving them from that overdose and starting to reverse the impacts of that,” Trudeau continued.

Trudeau adds how important it is for SRO operators to ensure sprinkler systems and fire alarms are working, “as we know the fire risk that’s going on in these buildings.”

“Even though the two individuals were incapacitated, unfortunately, suffering from an overdose, the sprinkler system worked and contained the fire,” he said.