'We were ignored': Shopkeeper testifies firefighters were warned people were still inside the Winters Hotel
The owner of a business that was destroyed when Vancouver’s Winters Hotel caught fire nearly two years ago believes lives could have been saved if the building’s fire extinguishers hadn’t been empty.
At the B.C. Coroner’s Inquest, Neda Pessione testified that her husband ran into the building and tried to put out the April 11, 2022 fire, but couldn’t, because none of the extinguishers were working.
“He said, ‘They are all empty. There were eight of them in a row on the second floor, and we tried every single one of them. They were empty,’” recalled Pessione.
Dennis Guay and Mary Ann Garlow were killed in the fire on Abbott Street.
Pessione knew them well, and described them as friendly and compassionate people.
She said Garlow would head out every morning to do her shopping, and that’s exactly what she did the morning of the fire.
“I still remember what she was wearing,” Pessione told CTV News. “I remember her response to my ‘hello.’ I remember her groceries in her hands. I remember all of that, so this is something that’s going to stay with me and I'm coping with it.”
Pessione told the jury that she didn’t see the couple leave the building, and informed firefighters.
“Me and my husband, went to the fire chief, we personally went there and we said ‘There are people up there, they didn’t make it’. I don’t know, we got really ignored,” she said under oath.
Two bodies were found in the rubble 11 days after the fire.
A tenant testified that she didn’t know the building was on fire, because the alarms didn’t sound and nobody knocked on her door.
“And I was like, three doors from the office,” said Diana Dawkins.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Kitchener family says their 10-year-old needs life-saving drug that cost $600,000
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.
'Do not consume': Gift Chocolate recalled due to undeclared milk, soy
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued a recall for a specific chocolate brand sold in Ontario and Quebec.
Key mediator Qatar urges Israel and Hamas to do more to reach a cease-fire deal
A senior Qatari official has urged Israel and Hamas to show "more commitment and more seriousness" in ceasefire negotiations in interviews with Israeli media, as pressure builds to reach a deal that would free some Israeli hostages and bring a ceasefire in the nearly seven-month-long war in Gaza.
BREAKING Quebec to invest $603 million to protect the French language
Quebec will invest $603 million over five years to counter the decline of French in the province, French Language Minister Jean-Francois Roberge announced Sunday.
Health minister 'deeply appreciative' of doctors but capital gains changes here to stay
Health Minister Mark Holland says while he is 'deeply appreciative' of the work doctors in Canada do, the federal government has no plans to scrap the proposed capital gains tax changes outlined in the latest budget, despite opposition from the Canadian Medical Association.
Campus anti-war protesters dig in across U.S. as schools, police take action
Students protesting the Israel-Hamas war woke up in tents at college campuses across the United States Sunday morning planning more protests demanding that schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies accused of enabling the conflict.
Invasive and toxic hammerhead worms make themselves at home in Ontario
Ontario is now home to an invasive and toxic worm species that can grow up to three feet long and can be dangerous to small animals and pets.
Here's where Canadians are living abroad: report
A recent report sheds light on Canadians living abroad--estimated at around four million people in 2016—and the public policies that impact them.
Murder charge laid after man falls to death from Toronto apartment balcony
One person has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of a man who fell from a balcony following an altercation inside a Toronto apartment building.