It was a busy morning for Burnaby firefighters as they battled two separate blazes early on Tuesday.

The first two-alarm fire occurred in the area of Kingsway and 13th Avenue just after 3 a.m.

By the time firefighters arrived the blaze was tearing through two lots, and it took 30 crew members to battle the flames.

Neighbours say one of the buildings was a vacant thrift shop and the other had been used as a car and truck lot until very recently. Both buildings suffered significant damage in the blaze.

The flames and the heat from the fire were so intense both firefighters and neighbours were afraid the blaze might spread to a nearby housing complex.

“My heart was beating fast,” said one witness, noting the flames were 15 feet in the air. “It was too scary, I thought my place was going to go next, catch on fire… we could feel the heat.”

Dep. Chief Darcey O'Riordan says his crew did a good job of preventing damage to nearby buildings.

“They knocked down the fire quite quickly, and protected the exposures to the rear where there are multi townhouse developments,” he told CTV News. “They did a great job.”

Less than an hour later fire crews were called to the second blaze, located on Government Road.

Crews say the occupants of the home were moving, and the amount of clutter and items inside the home got in their way as they attempted to extinguish the flames.

“There’s some definite inability for our crews to safely access the building, travel through it, or even identify the fire conditions within,” said Dep. Chief Chris Bowcock.

Due to the other fire on Kingsway, crews had to call in off-duty firefighters to deal with this blaze.

Nobody was hurt in either fire, and investigations into the causes of both are ongoing.