A two-alarm fire broke out at an abandoned Downtown Eastside building Monday night, but a fire crew was nearby and on scene within a minute, according to Asst. Chief Dan Stroup with Vancouver Fire Rescue Services.
Firefighters "arrived on scene and found smoke coming from the abandoned building, and right away they upgraded to a first alarm and a working fire assignment," said Stroup.
Smoke was pouring of out the front of the building at around 8:40 p.m. and Stroup said fire crews "went defensive right away, it was boarded up and because of the large amount of smoke, open spaces in the building, they made it a second alarm pretty quickly."
The building used to be Action Boxing. It is beside the Astoria Hotel on Hastings Street near Hawks Avenue.
Hastings Street was closed for several hours as fire crews worked to get the blaze under control. The street closures in the area has since been lifted.
Stroup said that the fire crews did a great job and there were no injuries reported.
It is not known how the fire started, but Stroup said that they were in the area for a rubbish fire prior to this blaze breaking out.
A fire investigator was seen taking pictures of the damage and incident.
