Multiple students awoken by firefighters after flames break out in Kerrisdale home

Eight students have been displaced after a fire in Vancouver’s Kerrisdale neighbourhood Tuesday morning.

Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services (VFRS) says it responded to reports of a house fire on West 46th Avenue near East Boulevard around 9:30 a.m.

No one was injured, but VFRS Capt. Matt Trudeau says crews arrived to an “incredibly serious” scene, with smoke and fire issuing from the roof above seven sleeping people with “no working smoke alarms inside.”

“Thankfully, we had an early call from someone in the area. Crews were there very quickly and kicked in the front door with a hose line to get access inside as quick as they could, and found people still in their beds sleeping and urgently got them out of the first storey and [out of] the basement unit below,” said Trudeau.

He says the residents, all students, were understandably shaken up by the sudden awakening and have now been displaced by the fire — including an eighth who was attending school at the time. But Trudeau says it “sounds like they do have housing going forward.”

The fire captain says the incident serves as a reminder to install and maintain smoke alarms in your home.

“While the responsibility lies, technically, with the owners to maintain properties that are safe and code compliant, there’s definitely responsibility for everyone who lives in dwellings or wherever they reside or sleep to make sure that their smoke alarm is working well… don’t remove it or take it down or take batteries out.”

VFRS says it was able to contain and extinguish the fire shortly after 10 a.m., but the roof was destroyed.