Multiple residents needed to be rescued from balconies in North Vancouver seniors’ apartment complex fire: fire chief
Posted May 10, 2025 11:18 am.
Last Updated May 11, 2025 5:52 pm.
No serious injuries were reported after a second-alarm structure fire broke out at a seniors’ centre in Lynn Valley Saturday morning, but District of North Vancouver Fire Chief Mike Danks says crews had found multiple residents trapped on their balconies.
“To my knowledge, they evacuated 10 people off those balconies,” Dank said.
He also says crews continued fighting the fire as the heat continued to rise, but then there was an explosion.
“Windows blew out,” Dank said.
“At that point, the crews had to retreat.”
He says most of the damage took place in a side of the building that was unoccupied.
“There was no occupancy in that side of the building,” Dank said.
“In the side that has just been renovated, we have accountability for all the residents so they are all safe, as far as we know. So that’s very positive news for us.”
Crews from three different fire departments headed to the scene to fight the blaze at the Silverlynn Apartment complex, located at 1335 27th Street in North Vancouver.
District of North Vancouver Mayor Mike Little said he was shocked to hear about the fire in the facility.
“It’s obviously got a lot of vulnerable people in it, and so [we are] very glad to hear there was such a rapid, large response,” he told CityNews.
“In fact, I’d love to make a big thank you to our neighbors, West Vancouver and City of North Vancouver, who helped with mutual aid on this call, both for the fire here and to cover our calls throughout the rest of the community.”
Little says damage from fire, smoke, and water is extensive throughout the facility.
“We’re not expecting this to be able to be used for housing for a long time to come,” he said.
“We’re always under immense pressure for housing appropriate to seniors in our community, particularly with a lower price point for costs, for the monthly bills, and so to see this taken out of service, it’s going to be very impactful on quite a number of very vulnerable people in our community.”
Little says this isn’t the first fire at this complex; there was another blaze three years ago.
In an X post just after 2:30 p.m., the North Vancouver RCMP said crews were still on the scene.
“Residents have been evacuated, and a reception centre has been established at 1341 27th Street,” the post said.
District of North Vancouver spokesperson Ryan Schaap says the building has suffered “significant damage,” but the extent won’t be known until it is put out.
Photos and video footage show the building engulfed in flames, with thick black and grey smoke billowing overhead and visible from far-away parts of Metro Vancouver.
Several callers to 1130 NewsRadio Saturday reported seeing huge plumes of smoke coming from the North Shore Saturday morning.
A caller named Amber tells us what she saw as she was driving over the Lion’s Gate Bridge.
“The plume of smoke is huge, you can totally see how it’s drifting down, literally, through North Vancouver, over past the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge,” she said.
“It is totally smoky, like hazy down into downtown Vancouver, like you can’t even see the SeaBus terminal anymore. So whatever’s on fire is huge, and it is blowing into the city.”
Amber says she first noticed the smoke just before 10 a.m., but by 11 a.m., it had grown substantially.
— With files from The Canadian Press and David Nadalini.
