Crews knock down East Vancouver house fire amid unusually busy 6 hours

Four people have been temporarily displaced after firefighters took down a single house fire on East 49th Avenue and Knight Street in Vancouver Tuesday afternoon.

Capt. Matt Trudeau with Vancouver Fire Rescue Services (VFRS) tells 1130 NewsRadio that the damage could have been much worse if not for the quick response.

He says the fire was first reported shortly after noon, and crews arrived in time to contain the blaze and limit the damage.

“Because of the speed, getting on scene quickly, and getting water prevented an adjacent house from becoming severely damaged. Where it was just some radiant heat damage to vinyl siding, and didn’t get into the neighboring structure. [Whereas] flames were shooting out halfway to the other house on arrival,” said Trudeau.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, and no injuries were reported.

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Firefighters were kept extraordinarily busy Tuesday as crews responded to 11 fires within six hours.

In a post to social media, VFRS said those were the first six hours on shift for some firefighters — with 18 hours left to go.

“This is on top of medical, alarm/sprinkler activation, wires down, and numerous other calls,” VFRS said.

Trudeau says VFRS typically faces an average of 10 to 12 fires in a 24-hour period. 

“We’re already at that rate now, with a third of the way, or a quarter of the way, through the shift for crews.”