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.