Vancouver firefighters seeing record-breaking number of Downtown Eastside fires

Vancouver Fire Rescue Services has been responding to a significantly increasing number of fires in the city's Downtown Eastside.

According to spokesperson Capt. Matthew Trudeau, the department has responded to 89 per cent more calls in the neighbourhood over the past three years.

"The indoor activity has gone up, the outdoor activity has gone up,” he told CTV News.

One of the things driving the surge in calls for service is a record-breaking number of blazes in the area's single room occupancy buildings. This year, they've responded to 265 fires – which works out to an average of one every 31 hours.

"They are high risk, they have a very at risk population inside, and we have a high fire activity as a result,” Trudeau said.

In addition to fires, crews are also being dispatched to the buildings for hundreds of other incidents.

"We’ve had over 450 calls this year alone to one SRO,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau says they’re also responding to an increased number of calls near an encampment on East Hasting Street, particularly recently.

"We’re seeing that specifically within the last month a dramatic increase in outdoor fires which is to be expected because of the colder temperatures,” said Trudeau.

In July, Fire Chief Karen Fry ordered tents and other structures to be removed from the stretch between Main and Carrall streets.

According to the City of Vancouver, there are currently 111 tents and structures in that area, down from 180 in August.

“As winter continues, the city's primary concern is ensuring people sheltering outdoors along East Hastings Street and other parts of the city, can come inside to ensure their safety and well-being," a spokesperson told CTV News in an email.

“BC Housing and the city are working together to rapidly deploy indoor spaces, such as shelters and SROs, to provide options for people to come inside,” 

However, as advocate Sarah Blyth points out, those fires are very often the result of people simply doing what they have to do to survive.

"It's just a matter of staying alive during the freezing temperatures. It wouldn't be shocking if people were dying during this time,” she said.

“We need to step it up and get people into shelters.”

Blyth says although emergency shelters and warming centres do open up when temperatures plummet or snow falls, there is a persistent lack of long-term options.

“There’s a big problem in a big city with so much wealth, and a country with so much wealth when we’re not able to house such a vulnerable population,” she said.