Fire tears through Vancouver church, art gallery; supportive housing building evacuated
Dozens of people have been displaced after an intense, third-alarm fire on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside Wednesday night.
The flames spread quickly, destroying two buildings and triggering an hours-long fight for crews.
Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services says it started around 9 p.m. Firefighters arrived to find smoke coming from Street Church, a community church and outreach centre near East Hastings and Main streets.
The church is located in a heritage building at 169 East Hastings St., built in 1904 for pharmacists, according to a website dedicated to historic architecture in Canada.
“Upon arrival, we found a building fully involved in flames. We tried to make an offensive attack, but the heat and the smoke and the collapse was just too great for our crews to risk it so we had to go defensive,” said Asst. Chief Brian Bertuzzi of Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services.
The flames then spread to an art gallery next door.
Bertuzzi says no one was inside either building, but the neighbouring Maple Hotel, which is supportive housing, had to be evacuated.
“We've had to evacuate 80 occupants and they've been put up in housing for the night and possibly tomorrow night until we can find it safe for them to go back into their building,” said the assistant chief.
Fifty firefighters and 12 trucks spent hours fighting the blaze and were still putting out hotspots Thursday morning.
“We had flames and just heavy rolling black. Just ugly smoke and our crews did just a great job. Everybody's exhausted,” said Bertuzzi Thursday morning.
One firefighter was hurt and was taken to hospital as a precaution for a wrist injury. No members of the public were injured.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
East Hastings Street was closed between Main and Columbia streets while crews completed their work. It reopened for a time, but Vancouver firefighters said later it was closed again in both directions.
Crews were still extinguishing "remaining smouldering areas" as of 10:30 a.m.
The city's fire chief posted about her appreciation for those at the scene Thursday morning, writing that she wanted to thank firefighters "for their amazing hard work last night.”
"This fire in the heart of the (Downtown Eastside) was against a much needed residential building," she said, praising their work to save it.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada were in St. John's, N.L., Wednesday after a plane overshot the main runway at the city's airport.