A structure fire is unfolding at an abandoned residential building at the intersection of East Hastings Street and Vernon Drive.
“So far, it has been maintained by trying to contain the fire from the outside. That’s too dangerous to go into an unoccupied building, but it does appear to be fully involved,” said Wes Abrams, Acting Assistant Chief with the Vancouver Fire Rescue Services, in an interview with 1130 NewsRadio.
The Vancouver Fire Rescue Services received the first calls shortly before 10 a.m. on Sunday.
“We are just in the process of trying to knock this fire down and get ahead of it before it spreads further,” he added.
1130 NewsRadio received multiple calls about the fire.
One caller to the station, named Sidney, says there are at least 4 fire trucks at the scene.
The building has collapsed by now.
“We’ve had a partial collapse in the rear of the building, which has caused some heavier smoke conditions,” said Abrams.
“When a building collapses on itself, it leaves a lot of hot spots that we can’t seem to get with our hose streams, so all we can do is just keep the surrounding material as cool as possible,” Abrams explained
“Between 11 a.m. and noon , you could barely see the building for the smoke,” he added.
Due to smoke conditions, Abrams recommends keeping windows and doors closed.
“We have the word out to anybody in the neighborhood to keep their windows and doors closed, anybody who could be affected by the smoke.”
“The crews have done an excellent job of pushing it into the back of the building, which is where it originated,” he said.
Abrams confirmed that no one got injured.
Road closures are in place around the location of the fire.
More to come.