{"id":929844,"date":"2026-10-12T05:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T05:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/929844\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T05:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T05:10:11","slug":"new-westminster-apartment-building-evacuated-due-to-early-morning-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/929844\/","title":{"rendered":"New Westminster apartment building evacuated due to early morning fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 2 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

A New Westminster apartment building was evacuated as crews battled flames for hours Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

On Sunday afternoon, crews remained on scene putting out remaining hotspots and monitoring conditions.<\/p>\n

Fire tore through a low-rise apartment building at 37 Agnes Street, located in the downtown area of New Westminster near the new stal\u0315\u0259w\u0313as\u0259m (Riverview) Bridge, with approximately 45 firefighters on scene. <\/p>\n

Fire Chief Erin Williams said crews first responded at 3:45 a.m. PT, arriving to heavy flames from a third floor balcony. <\/p>\n

“Crews reported heavy smoke and fire,” Williams said, noting the area was still quite smoky later on in the morning. <\/p>\n

“The fire had extended into the interior of the building and had impacted several suites on the third floor.” <\/p>\n

\"Firefighters<\/p>\n

Burnaby and New Westminster firefighters are working to put out a fire on Agnes Street in New Westminster on Sunday morning. (Nav Rahi\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Williams said crews evacuated the building, including several people with mobility challenges and a pet. <\/p>\n

“A search was done for the entire building and all residents were evacuated,” Williams said.<\/p>\n

He said all residents were evacuated to a bus where they were taken to an emergency reception centre that has been set up for displaced residents at the t\u0259m\u0259sew\u0313tx\u02b7 Aquatic and Community Centre located on East 6th Avenue. <\/p>\n

Williams said the fire was upgraded to a third alarm, and Burnaby firefighters joined to help. <\/p>\n

He said paramedics were on scene, and no injuries have currently been reported. <\/p>\n

The City of New Westminster said in a social media post Royal Avenue between Fourth Street and McBride Boulevard is closed in all directions, and it is asking people to avoid the area. <\/p>\n

Williams said crews will investigate once the fire is out and it is safe to enter the building. <\/p>\n

\"Crews<\/p>\n

Fire crews are pictured responding to a Sunday morning fire on Agnes Street in New Westminster. (Lory Egeland)<\/p>\n

Lory Egeland, who lives about a block away from where the fire is burning, says she woke in the early morning to the smell of smoke.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From her window she has watched the firefighters spraying water on the flames for hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been pummelling this thing,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little nerve wracking and I\u2019m just really sad for people especially on Thanksgiving that they\u2019re going to be homeless.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":929845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-929844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}