Two North Vancouver residents were briefly hospitalized and approximately 30 are out of their homes after a fire tore through a Lower Lonsdale apartment early Friday morning.
After getting an alert from the apartment building’s alarm company, fire crews rushed to the 500 block of Lonsdale Avenue shortly after 2 a.m. to find flames shooting from the seventh floor overlooking Fifth Street, according to City of North Vancouver fire Chief Dan Pistilli.
Due to the fire’s severity, city firefighters immediately triggered a second alarm, calling in crews from the District of North Vancouver as well as West Vancouver, ultimately assembling seven trucks and 35 firefighters.
Crews batted down flames with an “exterior attack” while using the ladder truck to pump a stream into the building, dousing the flames and cooling the floor to allow firefighters to access the seventh floor, Pistilli said.
The building does not have sprinklers, according to Pistilli.
“We had it under control, probably within about 40, 45 minutes,” he said. “It was a great effort by all the firefighters to contain it just to that area.”
Two resident suffered “slight smoke inhalation” but were released from hospital in a few hours, Pistilli said.
City fire investigators will be back in the burned-out unit today, along with insurance investigators. There are still some potential causes yet to be ruled out but a candle left burning in the bedroom is a factor in the investigation, Pistilli said.
All of the residents have fire insurance coverage.
A restoration contractor is already at work on the site but, noting water damage throughout the building, Pistilli said the building’s 30 residents will likely be displaced for “an extended period of time.”
Six volunteers from Emergency Social Services arrived on the scene at about 2:30 a.m., according to North Shore Emergency Management director Fiona Dercole.
The pyjama-clad evacuees were put on a bus and registered at North Shore Neighbourhood House, Dercole said. While most displaced residents spent the night with friends and family, NSEM was able to book eight North Shore hotel rooms, according to Dercole.
Volunteers spent the morning with the evacuees at Walmart, “just getting them some incidentals to get them through these first few days until they can get back on their feet,” Dercole said.
The building’s residents met with NSEM and their building’s insurer on Monday to plan the next steps. A restoration company will begin work this week. Still, it has been difficult for the displaced residents.
“Obviously that’s a major traumatic event. I think people are coping as well as can be expected,” said emergency planning officer John Chapman.
