Burnaby highrise apartment fire leaves one hospitalized

A fire at a highrise apartment in Burnaby Tuesday afternoon caused one person to be taken to hospital.

Smoke could be seen from Lougheed Highway and the Lougheed Mall heading into the evening

According to the Burnaby Fire Department, crews were called to 3970 Carrigan Court just after 5 p.m.

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Fire Chief Chris Bowcock tells CityNews that crews saw three people trapped on a 25th-floor balcony shortly after they arrived. The situation was quickly upgraded from a second-alarm fire to a third-alarm fire.

“The fire was rapidly struck and contained to the single suite,” he said. Bowcock says some people living in the building were able to stay in their suites once the fire was contained to one suite, and crews were working to get any tenants who had to evacuate back into the building.

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He explains, aside from having to walk up all those stairs, firefighters also had the heat to worry about.

“Think of those firefighters that are encapsulating themselves in fire suits when it’s already 30 degrees outside and then entering extremely warm areas,” Bowcock said, adding some firefighters were carrying up to 200 pounds of gear while climbing up 25 floors.

“We have to really watch our firefighters because they have this natural ability to push themselves farther than their body should be able to, just to get the job done to save people,” he added.

“Heat exhaustion is a real concern, so it requires more people to do the same amount of work as we need to get them out of that gear and cool them down just to protect their own personal safety.”

Bowcock says 44 total firefighters responded to fight the fire, and it was put out fairly quickly. Meanwhile, he says the cause of this fire has yet to be determined, as investigators are currently in the “gathering of information stages.”

He says the person who was hospitalized had been dealing with smoke inhalation injuries.

“We would like to express our best wishes to the one resident who sustained injuries … our hearts go out to that individual and we hope for their speedy recovery,” said Bowcock.