Vancouver firefighters responded to a fully involved fire in an apartment building Thursday (June 10) and were able to extinguish the blaze just before the flames began to spread to other suites.
Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services (VFRS) responded to the call just after 6 p.m. and quickly arrived at the building on Comox and Thurlow streets. The fire was contained to a single suite on the 14th floor which firefighters reached by ascending through the building’s stairwell to tackle the flames from the inside. On the outside firefighters kept the blaze from spreading to other floors with water sprayed from ladder trucks explains Assistant Chief of operations Trevor Connelly.
"As it turns out this fire was really close to spreading to the floor above from window to window,” Connelly told V.I.A. “The windows in the suite on the floor above had actually broken and the fire was starting to enter but our crews were able to get it out before it took hold."
Pamela, a witness who captured a video of the fire before VFRS arrived, says she thought at first it was a dirty barbeque giving off smoke.
“The windows started exploding and you could see the fire was everywhere in that unit,” Pamela said. “Then the flames just were fine and like f***ing heroes five or six firefighters emerge from the smoke and start spraying down the outside.”
@NEWS1130 @cbcnewsbc @GlobalBC #vancity #westend. Major fire at Thurlow and Davie pic.twitter.com/b6QxqUOJSX
— Pamela (@Vancity_Pamela) June 11, 2021
Connelly says crews were able to douse the blaze within 20-25 minutes. A remarkable time achieved due to the fire hall being relatively close by.
The occupant was not home at the time of the fire and there were no reported injuries for civilians or firefighters Connelly added.
Early stages of the investigation suggest the fire was caused by an electrical issue.
— Andre Beck (@Johnny_Canuck69) June 11, 2021
