A fire has broken out in the Downtown Eastside.
Vancouver Fire Rescue Services (VFRS) received calls of smoke coming from a building at 175 E Hastings St around 12:10 p.m. on Tuesday (Oct. 25).
Vancouver Is Awesome reporter Brendan Kergin notes from the scene that around eight or nine VFRS vehicles are attending the fire alongside Vancouver police. The area is taped off and there are onlookers watching the firefighters as they hose the roof of the building.
East Hastings between Columbia and Main streets are closed off.
VFRS media spokesperson, Matthew Trudeau, confirmed over the phone to V.I.A. that the building on fire is the Street Church which is now on fire for the third time.
"Our crews did arrive to find heavy smoke coming from the roof and flames in the back of the structure," he says on scene.
After dousing the fire via fire vehicle ladder, fire crews are now trying to find a new vantage point through the adjacent Balmoral Hotel, reports Kergin from the scene.
Trudeau tells V.I.A. that crews "haven't been able to conduct primary or secondary structures at this time so we're unsure if there's any injuries are if there was anyone inside," he says, adding that the building has been vacant and boarded up with fencing around it.
That there have been no reports of anyone missing or any injuries. The incident has been classified as a third-alarm fire.
Trudeau says that fire crews aren't able to identify the cause of the fire yet and that the smoke seems to be coming down. "We're hoping to have it contained," he says.
More to come.
