Fire burns through the night at vacant North Vancouver apartment building

City of North Vancouver firefighters worked overnight Friday into Saturday to contain a blaze in a vacant apartment building slated for demolition.

Chief Greg Schalk told CTV News the call came in around 7:40 p.m. at 275 E. 2nd St., and crews arrived to find heavy smoke and fire. They quickly upgraded the response to a second alarm, bringing a total of roughly 40 firefighters and 10 trucks to the scene.

Schalk said firefighters initially attempted to enter the building, but encountered hazards inside and ended up limiting their efforts to an exterior, defensive operation aimed at keeping the blaze from spreading.

This meant crews were unable to do a thorough search to determine whether anyone was inside the building when the fire broke out, the fire chief said.

"There is a question there," Schalk said. "We can't say for certain whether there was anybody inside last night."

He said there were some indications of recent human activity on the property, which has not had occupancy permits for at least the last few months as the site awaits redevelopment.

Asked whether there was any indication of how the fire began, Schalk said it's too soon to say what caused it.

Crews battled the blaze overnight, finally wrapping up their efforts around 8 a.m. Saturday, according to Schalk.