Vancouver crews fight weekend fires at boarded-up houses

A photo shared online by Chief Karen Fry shows crews at the scene of a fire in South Vancouver on Nov. 20, 2022. (Image credit: Twitter/Karen_Fry)

For the second time in two days, Vancouver Fire Rescue Service crews were called to a fire at a vacant, boarded up home in the city.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, a spokesperson for the department says they were called to a first-alarm fire in South Vancouver on Borden Street, near Southeast marine Drive.

Assistant Chief Ross Burden says it was knocked down after about two and a half hours of a defensive attacks, and a subsequent search of the inside found it empty.

While Chief Karen Fry called it "suspicious" in a social media post, Burden said the cause is unknown, with that investigators returning to the home Sunday to continue their examination of the scene. He also said all utilities had been disconnected.

Early Saturday morning, fire crews were called to an empty, boarded-up home on East 1st Avenue near Maclean Drive. The fire was a second alarm and the house was completely destroyed. The cause of that blaze has also not been determined and no one was found inside the building.

Burden says there's no evidence to suggest that the fires are linked, or that they had similar causes.