Fire crews were able to quickly put out a fire in an apartment building in East Vancouver Saturday morning, containing the blaze to just one suite out of 13.
Trevor Connelly -- assistant chief, operations, for Vancouver Fire Rescue Services -- told CTV News Vancouver most of the residents would be able to return to their homes Saturday, a fortunate outcome given the circumstances.
"It was a very, very good save by our crews," Connelly said. "Being that this is a very old, wood-frame building, they got to this just in time. It could have been a lot worse."
Firefighters were called to the building in the 100 block of East 7th Avenue, near Main Street, just after 9:30, he said. They arrived to find heavy smoke, but couldn't immediately identify where it was coming from.
After a few minutes, crews were able to find the source of the fire in the kitchen of a ground-floor suite, Connelly said.
No one was home at the time, so firefighters had to force entry into the apartment where the blaze was located. That suite has "extensive" fire, smoke and water damage, all of the other suites are habitable, Connelly said.
He said the cause of the fire is under investigation, but it is not believed to be suspicious.
