Highrise fire in Vancouver caused by magnifying effect: fire department
A fire on the roof of a Vancouver highrise under construction appears to have been caused by sunlight being magnified by a curved wall of windows.
That’s the determination reached by Vancouver Fire Rescue Services after last Tuesday’s fire on the eighth floor the building on Quebec Street and Fourth Avenue.
In a tweet, Trevor Connelly, VFRS assistant chief of operations, revealed the fire was caused by “magnification of sunlight by a concave shaped wall of windows,” attaching a photo showing charred roof insulation and several windows on the wall blown out.
In an email to CTV News, Connelly said “these types of incidents are rare, however, it does happen.”
One example he pointed to, was the infamous case of the “Walkie-Talkie” tower in London, England.
The building has a curved shape, and had a glare so strong, it melted nearby cars and shops in September 2014. The solution to the solar glare problem was fixed by the erection of a permanent sunshade on the upper floors.
Connelly said he’s only seen such cases “roughly half a dozen times” in his career, including a vase in a sunny window that started a fire in a pillow, and one where a crystal or glass ball started two fires at the same time.
In this latest case on Quebec Street, the fire did extend from the roof into the interior of the building, but crews were able to extinguish it quickly before it spread too far. No one was hurt.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment which has been banned at Queen’s Park.
Mountain guide dies after falling into a crevasse in Banff National Park
A man who fell into a crevasse while leading a backcountry ski group deep in the Canadian Rockies has died.
2 teens charged in Halifax homicide: police
Two teenagers have been charged with second-degree murder in connection to an alleged homicide near the Halifax Shopping Centre earlier this week.
'Deep ignorance': Calls for Manitoba trustee to resign sparked after comments about Indigenous people and reconciliation
A rural Manitoba school trustee is facing calls to resign over comments he made about Indigenous people and residential schools earlier this week.
ByteDance prefers TikTok shutdown in U.S. if legal options fail, Reuters sources say
TikTok owner ByteDance would prefer to shut down its loss-making app rather than sell it if the Chinese company exhausts all legal options to fight legislation to ban the platform from app stores in the U.S., four sources said.
12-year-old hippo in Japan raised as a male discovered to be a female
When Gen-chan arrived at a zoo in Japan in 2017, no one questioned whether the then-five-year-old hippopotamus was a boy. Seven years later, zoo staff made a surprising discovery: Gen-chan, now 12, was female.
Here's why Harvey Weinstein's New York rape conviction was tossed and what happens next
Here's what you need to know about why movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction was thrown out and what happens next.
Improve balance and build core strength with this exercise
When it comes to cardiovascular fitness, you may tend to focus on activities that move you forward, such as walking, running and cycling.
Legendary hockey broadcaster Bob Cole dies at 90: CBC
Bob Cole, a welcome voice for Canadian hockey fans for a half-century, has died at the age of 90. Cole died Wednesday night in St. John's, N.L., surrounded by his family, his daughter, Megan Cole, told the CBC.