An early morning house fire in Burnaby sent two people to hospital and badly damaged two homes on East Pender Street Friday.
Katie Man lives next door to one of the properties and said the sound of glass breaking woke her up just after 2:30 a.m.
“Then I opened my eyes and I see my bedroom is all red,” Man said.
She and her family escaped safely, but she said the older couple living in the house that caught fire was taken to hospital. The fire department said the man suffered burns to his upper body, and both were treated for smoke inhalation.
The flames also spread to the roof of the house on the other side. Everyone inside managed to escape safely, but there were concern about other homes in the area, according to Assistant Fire Chief Stewart Colbourne.
“We did not want it to get into the townhouse complex, and so we evacuated all tenants from those buildings,” Colbourne told CTV News Vancouver.
Fortunately, the fire was contained before it could do any more damage, but it wasn’t an easy task.
“The structure itself is very compartmentalized, and as a result, it was very very difficult to fight, but the crews did an outstanding job,” Colbourne said.
Man’s family is also expressing thanks to the firefighters. Her home suffered some water damage and broken windows, but was not burned.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, but the fire department said at this point, there’s nothing to indicate the blaze was suspicious.
