Vancouver firefighters responded to a blaze in a single-room occupancy (SRO) building located near a gas station Tuesday (Nov. 29) morning.
Vancouver Fire Rescue Services (VFRS) received a call just after 11 a.m. about a fire in a unit of the Flint Hotel, an SRO located on Powell Street between Woodland Drive and McLean Avenue.
When the crew arrived on the scene, smoke was coming out of the building but the fire was contained to a unit inside, according to VFRS spokesperson Cpt. Matthew Trudeau.
"It was about 100 feet away from the gas station so it wasn't a consideration...sprinklers had it contained to the unit," he told Vancouver Is Awesome.
"Fire crews were able to quickly knock down this SRO fire, preventing it from spreading to adjacent units."
There was only some water damage in the unit below, Trudeau noted.
The blaze was upgraded to a second-alarm fire due to the smoke billowing out from the building and because it was considered high-risk. Roughly 14 vehicles were dispatched to the scene.
The area between Woodland Drive and McLean Avenue on Powell Street was closed for a couple of hours but has since reopened.
In April, a massive fire that destroyed a historic building in Gastown sparked concern about safety in Vancouver's SRO residences. Since then, the VFRS says it continues to grapple with fires in units located in high-risk buildings.
"It's a big problem and a big priority and we continue to go to [these kinds of fires] often," said Trudeau.
