Donations for Gastown fire victims paused over Easter long weekend after 'overwhelming' response from public

A downtown boutique has closed its doors over the Easter long weekend after an “overwhelming” response from the public making donations for those displaced by a massive fire in Gastown.

Five people were hospitalized and more than 100 were displaced after a fire tore through a mixed-use building in Vancouver's Gastown neighbourhood last week, damaging much-needed units of low-income housing.

Atira Women's Resource Society, which runs the SRO that was in the Winters Hotel, has been taking donations to support residents affected by the fire. A collection centre has been set up at Bette's Boutique near Main and Cordova streets where people can drop off and receive donations.

“The community response has been overwhelming, it's been awesome,” said Atira CEO Janice Abbott. “We’ve stopped accepting donations for the long weekend just so we can clear and sort what we have and also determine what we may still need.”

Abbott said Bette’s was so full with supplies that staff have had to move some of the donations to another storage space.

The centre has only been accepting fire donations since Wednesday, and Abbott said the response from both fire victims and those making the donations has been moving.

“I heard a couple of common themes – just from residents saying to each other that they can’t believe people care this much,” she said. “Also the gratitude by the people who were dropping off stuff that they were able to contribute during this awful situation.”

Abbott said staff will advise what supplies they still need after having a chance to go through the current donations.

The Winters Hotel will now have to be demolished and Atira hopes residents who were living in there will be moved into new accommodations at the old Columbia Hotel by Tuesday.

It's unclear how long the demolition will take. On Friday, the City of Vancouver told CTV News staff are expecting to have a clearer timeline by early next week.

"Given the age and condition of the Winters Hotel following the fire, the demolition of the building will be complex," the city said in a statement.