Several residents were rescued from a building in Gastown, where the fire kept Vancouver crews busy Monday morning. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO / PNG
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A fire engulfed a four-story house in Vancouver’s Gastown neighborhood on Monday, leaving dozens of homeless residents and emitting dense, acidic smoke into the air.
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Vancouver Fire Chief Karen Fry confirmed that “a handful” of residents were missing, while five people were taken to hospital, two in serious condition. One of them was injured after jumping from the upper floor to escape the fire. Two other people were taken to hospital in stable condition. One of them, a woman, was rescued from the second floor about an hour into the fire, while firefighters used a ladder truck to rescue others from the upper floors, which were engulfed in smoke and flames. Nicole Kroeker described the horror as she left barefoot after smelling smoke and opened her door to a “huge cloud of black smoke”. “The first thing I did was grab my animals and get out of the building. I made sure to shout “Fire!” because I realized, ‘Well, the alarm is not ringing.’ . I was knocking on doors as I left the building. “As I knocked on the front door, the alarm just went off,” Crocker recalls, sitting on the ground near some fire trucks, wearing purple socks they had given her.
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She and a friend’s pit bull, named Peanut, were wrapped in a blanket. “We do not know what caused it, but it was bad. I just thought “Get out”, right? I just know how fast it is (fire). I did not think to grab anything. I just ran. “ Jeremy Walker, who has lived in the building for seven years, said he went to a clinic to get a prescription when the fire broke out. “I do not know where my girlfriend is,” he said shortly afterwards. “I have not found all my neighbors.” Around 11 a.m., fire and smoke began to billow from the roof of the building on the northwest corner of Abbott Street and Blood Alley. Firefighters poured water on several floors as thick smoke rose high above the building around noon.
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The smoke changed direction and went down to street level, causing passers-by to wear face masks and others to leave the area as their first correspondents told them they would not want to breathe the toxic smoke. Visibility was reduced from time to time to half a square. Paramedic and fire crews work on a patient during a four-fire fire at the Winters Hotel at 203 Abbott Street in Vancouver on April 11, 2022. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO / PNG The fire escalated into a flame with four alarms around noon as more crews were called in and smoke continued to fill the skies around downtown Vancouver. In Vancouver, four firefighters, a rescue worker / a doctor, a battalion leader and at least 19 firefighters were assigned to a first-degree fire. Upgrading a fire to a second, third, or fourth fire alarm allocates additional resources, such as equipment and more firefighters. According to Fry, 13 firefighters were called in to help fight the blaze shortly after noon.
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TransLink changed many of its buses in the area throughout the day and drivers and pedestrians were informed to avoid the area. Simon Fraser University, meanwhile, canceled all classes scheduled for the Goldcorp Center for the Arts inside the nearby Woodwards building for the rest of the day due to smoke, and businesses in the area closed to send staff home. Arliss Renwick, who works in an architectural firm on Abbott Street, was initially alerted to the fire by the presence of smoke. “There was a lot of smoke from the upper levels and the roof,” said Renwick, who watched the fire outside his office window. “Voices from people were heard before leaving the building.” Renwick said he saw two people in the building being rescued by firefighters through the fourth-floor windows using stairs leaning against the building, before escorting them on stretchers and ambulances waiting below.
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The room for rent, at 203 Abbott Street, is known as the Winters Hotel, a 95-unit one-room building managed by Atira Property Management. By mid-afternoon, firefighters reported that part of the building’s roof had collapsed. Fry says the building was recently inspected and had a sprinkler system, but did not know if it was working when the fire broke out and the following businesses, including Bruce Eyewear Inc., Lemongrass House, Nika Design and The Flying Pork Restaurant, were damaged. in the water. As a precautionary measure, officials issued evacuation orders for additional housing on the block, including two adjoining one-story buildings, the Gastown and Colonial hotels.
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“It’s because of the smoke and the proximity of the fire. “There is no gap between these buildings, they are some of the oldest in Vancouver and with a wooden frame inside,” Fry told Postmedia at 3 p.m. “The contents and age of the building led to the spread of the fire.” Olena Krevenets, a Ukrainian living in Vancouver, said she was shocked to see a fire break out while taking a walk with her husband. “It simply came to our notice then. “Two people escaped from the building using the fire brigade stairs and some others accompanied firefighters to climb through a window and go down a ladder,” he told Postmedia. “I am Ukrainian and I have my family there (in Ukraine) now. I watch the news in Ukraine every day and I saw a lot of damage and burned buildings last month. “But I did not expect to see such a huge fire in the city center.”
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Claire Niebergal, a resident of a building across the street, smelled the fire before seeing the power of its flames. “I work from home. “I thought the smoke might be coming out of the common corridor of our building, but I looked outside and saw it igniting on the opposite side of the road, from the top of the building.” Nybergal said she and other neighbors in her building began evacuating before smoke from a nearby fire triggered their building alarm and stopped elevators. “We were scared. “We went out as fast as we could before the fire alarm in our building could go out and stop the elevators,” he said. “It was already difficult to breathe when we went outside. The smoke was just coming up from our windows. “ Firefighters fight a four-fire alarm at Winters Residence at 203 Abbott Street in Vancouver on April 11, 2022. Photo: NICK PROCAYLO / PNG Public Safety Secretary Mike Farnworth told a news conference that an estimated 70 residents had been affected and that a reception center was being set up for those in need.
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The Atira Women’s Resource Society said on social media that it was looking for donations of men’s and women’s clothing and pet supplies and requested that they be taken to Bette’s Boutique at the intersection of Main and Cordova Streets. East Housing’s advocate, Fiona York, said she was concerned about tenants who had been evicted from their rooms and belongings. “Where are they going and what space does this leave for other people seeking housing in Vancouver?” He said the SRO, which dates back more than a century, housed many low-income residents who were previously homeless. “The constant displacement, the uncertainty, the loss of objects and the sense of security – is catastrophic,” York said. As a result of the Gastown SRO evacuations, harm reduction worker Trey Helten said that Postmedia overdose prevention sites have “tripled visits.” The residents came here screaming their eyes, some say they lost their pets “.
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Late Monday afternoon, several dozen people showed up at the triage center set up in Bette’s Boutique. Jordan, a Colonial resident who did not want to be named, was among them. He was not at home when the fire broke out. When he returned, he was not allowed in and had only one backpack. Kroeker said she and her partner were given three large bags containing bedding and other items. He said they were going to a temporary shelter at the Japanese Cultural Center. “It’s not very private,” he said as …
