Fire crews extinguish Gastown highrise blaze Sunday morning

Vancouver Fire Rescue extinguished an apartment fire in a Gastown highrise Sunday morning.

Assistant Fire Chief Keith Stewart tells 1130 NewsRadio crews were called to the fire on West Cordova near Abbott Street just after 8:30 a.m, where they found a fire on the 28th floor.

“Upon arrival, we had heavy black smoke billowing from the upper floors of the high rise,” Stewart said. “Our crews were able to get up to the fire floor very quickly.”

He says sprinklers were activated but were not putting out the fire, so crews had to use their hoses.

“There was no occupant inside at the time,” he said. “We didn’t have any injuries. So there’s no occupant injuries, there’s no firefighter injuries.”

The fire was contained to the floor and was just in a single unit.

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“There was smoke damage, and we got lots of water damage right now, so we’re trying to deal with that right now on how many suites are affected,” Stewart said.

It isn’t clear how many people will be displaced. Stewart says they think there will be a least five but he says they need to confirm.

“High rise fires are always dangerous, but we were very lucky to get to the fire floor quickly and get water on it, so in all accounts, this worked out pretty well.”

The cause of the fire is under investigation, he says.

With files from David Nadalini.