One person is dead and dozens of others are homeless after a fire tore through an apartment building in North Vancouver on Monday.

The two-alarm blaze broke out around 5 a.m. at a low-rise building on East 2nd Street and St. Patrick’s Avenue, sending flames shooting through the roof.

“I heard people in the hallway yelling ‘Fire, fire!’ and I just grabbed my dog and got out of there,” resident Paul King told CTV News.

Firefighters made a heroic effort to rescue everyone inside, including several residents and their pets who wound up trapped on balconies.

“We had multiple 911 calls of people wanting to jump off upper balconies and stuff like that, so we worked hard to get those people down,” North Vancouver Fire Chief Dan Pistilli said.

At one point, crews carried an older woman down a ladder, then went back up to save a small dog, grabbing it by the scruff of the neck and helping it to a lower level.

Unfortunately, a body was discovered inside the building later in the day. The deceased’s identity has not been released.

Firefighters said two people were also taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation and others were treated at the scene.

All the 30-odd suites in the building had to be evacuated, and it’s unclear when people will be able to return to their homes. Pistilli said several units in the building sustained serious damage.

“There’s extensive fire and smoke damage on the upper floors and then water damage cascading through to the second and first floors as well,” he said.

The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Jonathan Glasgow  

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