A Vancouver firefighter who visited a downtown Vancouver SRO days before it went up in flames that killed two of its occupants, told a B.C. coroner’s inquest Tuesday that he had a “bad feeling” about it.
Kris Zoppa of Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services was an acting captain on April 8, 2022, when the Winters Hotel experienced a separate fire that was quickly extinguished by its sprinklers. At the time, he said hoarded items prevented first responders from entering the unit where the fire broke out and he “didn’t like” the SRO or the “disrepair” he found there.
“I had a bad feeling about that building,” the captain testified at a Burnaby courthouse.
“I didn’t like the fact that the alarms weren’t going off when I got there, I didn’t like the hoarding … there were a lot of problems, a lot of things I didn’t like.”
Three days later on April 11, 2022, a second fire broke out at the Winters Hotel — this time, killing 63-year-old Mary Ann Garlow and 53-year-old Dennis James Guay. Five people were hospitalized and more than 140 were displaced from the heritage building on Abbott and Water streets, which also contained a women’s shelter and seven businesses.
Garlow and Guay’s remains were found in the rubble 11 days later as demolition on the wreckage began. The property manager originally said it was believed all residents had escaped.
A coroner’s inquest into Garlow and Guay’s deaths was ordered in July 2022 and began Monday. It will not make a determination of fault, but will document the facts related to the deaths, including the causes and circumstances.
Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services has suggested unattended candles were the cause of the fatal April 11 blaze that began on the second of three residential floors and moved upward.
The building’s sprinklers were turned off at the time because of the April 8 fire.
Zoppa testified Tuesday that the sprinklers were still going off when he was in the building on April 8, but the fire alarms weren’t. The sprinklers were turned off on April 8 to prevent flooding, he said.
Fire crews issued a notice of violation to the property’s owner — Atira Women’s Resource Society — to have the fire safety systems serviced and the sprinklers reset. They put the building under a 24-hour fire watch until that work was complete.
Zoppa said such service orders are supposed to be complied with immediately.
Nearly 30 witnesses are scheduled to testify at the inquest, including doctors, police and fire officials. Legal counsel for the victims’ families, the City of Vancouver, the B.C. government, Winters Residence Ltd., BC Housing, the Management Commission, and Atira are all expected to attend.
There is no evidence to suggest that Guay and Garlow were impaired by drugs on April 11, a forensic toxicologist testified Tuesday. However, examinations of Garlow and Guay’s bodies revealed fatal concentrations of carbon monoxide, Dr. Aaron Shapiro told the inquest jury.
A forensic pathologist testified that the pair suffered thermal injury and smoke inhalation “due to or as a result of a residential fire.” The soot in their airways indicated they were both alive during the fire, Dr. Eric Bol said.
Garlow’s niece, Misty Fredericks, testified Monday. She told the jury her aunt’s son John also lived in the Winters Hotel and jumped out of his third-storey room to escape the fire, shattering both legs.
Fredericks said it would be too difficult for John to testify but he wanted the jury to know how much he loved his mom, and that there were “chains on the door, the sprinklers didn’t work and there was no way out.”
“Mary was his caregiver, always looking out for his well-being, ensuring he was safe and fed. The love for her son is what saved John’s life,” Fredericks said Monday.
“It was Mary who made the ultimate motherly sacrifice by making sure her son jumped out the window before the last moments of her life.”
According to the City of Vancouver, firefighters performed a primary search for occupants of the Winters Hotel when it first went up in flames. Normally, a second search is performed, but in their “defensive attack,” firefighters exited the building to fight the flames from outside and it was “too dangerous” to allow them to search the second floor and above.
Experts told the inquest Monday that DNA from family members was used to confirm the identity of the victims.
Garlow is described as a cherished member of the Downtown Eastside community, a loving mother, a member of the Oneida Nation in the Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario and a residential school survivor.
Guay is described as an accomplished musician who overcame profound hearing loss to study at the Royal Conservatory of Music, and a lover of chess and backgammon who was kind to those around him. His family also attended the inquest Monday, where their lawyer read a statement aloud in court on their behalf:
“The grieving process for Dennis’s family has been extremely hard, and his death has left a massive void,” Rebecca Coad told the inquest. “A piece of the puzzle is missing and cannot be fixed. Life is taken day by day with the hope that one day they will come to terms with it.”
A psychiatrist testified Monday that Guay had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was stable and in good spirits at his last appointment days before the fire.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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